


Pieces of You

by AntaresPromise



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assassination, Bittersweet, Forbidden Love, Hope, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Romance, VictUuri, mafia, nothing is what it seems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 08:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 54,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9429518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntaresPromise/pseuds/AntaresPromise
Summary: "So none of this is real," his blue green eyes glistening, "you deceived me, you killed the people that I called family. I trusted you..."There is nothing else he can think of than this, Yuri leans forward and kisses him. Not a soft kiss, but fierce until he can taste blood on his lips. But this is real...The world is dying from a disease spreading like wildfire. Victor is a brilliant molecular biologist struggling with finding the cure. Yuri is a mercenary with the nickname Mantis sent to kill him. Yurio is a rising star amongst the mercenaries, Yuri's sworn brother, whom he would give anything to protect. A story of deception, of betrayal, of one love that crosses the enemy lines, and of Yuri's unspoken dream to set his brother free from the organization that owns them, body and soul.





	1. Monochrome

**Prologue** :

"Victor," Yuri's wraps an arm around him, and rests his head against his chest listening to his even heartbeats, "do you remember how we met?"

Victor opens his blue-green eyes, still groggy from sleep, he ruffles Yuri's hair affectionately. "How could I forget," he kisses the top of Yuri's head, inhaling his familiar scent.

Rays of morning sun shine through the blinds, outside their window is the cloudless cerulean sky. Yuri cannot believe till this day that he could wake up every day like this. On some mornings he would pinch himself, to confirm that this is real. Victor would laugh at him and tell him, _yes this is real._

Once upon a time Yuri did not dare to dream.

He did not know how to cry.

He thought love was for the weak.

He did not believe that he would live past the age of thirty.

This is the story about hope, and how he was wrong.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Monochrome**

"Stay close to him, befriend him...seduce him, I don't care what you do to him," the masked figure's voice reverberates through the crisp night air, "Mantis, I know you won't disappoint me."

"Yes master," Yuri nods, his breaths pale against the night air, his blade behind his back. His code name is the Mantis, as invisible as he is deadly his black outfit clings tightly around his body, the only shade he ever wears when he is not in disguise on a mission. The temperature is below freezing, yet he does not feel cold, he feels numb to it. Part of him likes striking targets in the below freezing, the bodies are easier to clean up.

* * *

He turns the keys to his apartment, a simple black and white place. 65 degrees Fahrenheit. He likes it to be cold. He opens the doors of his closet. Inside is a rusty mirror, and several wire coat hangers, a black sweater partly falling off the hanger. He does not have many possessions, being is his line of work, called to be uprooted at any moment.

He gazes at his reflection in the mirror with a crack down the bottom third at his own twisted smile. _What should I be to you,_ _Dr._ Nikiforov, _a shy student, a friend? A brother? Or maybe a...lover?_ _Chris is the one typical sent to seduce targets for information_. He gazes into his own cold and dark eyes as he picks up a pair of blue rimmed glasses. Above the mirror he pinned a picture of his next target, the picture is shot from above. Victor's silver hair parted to the side and his blue-green eyes appear as if searching for something. _I have never tried seducing a man before._ He smiles to himself. He is confident with his appearance. But he knows, appearance is only secondary compared to the aura that he projects. It's the same reason some ordinary people appear incredibly beautiful, and some beautiful people ordinary.

Chris once told him that he is unbelievably sexy and he does not even know it, he shrugged him off. But he knows about seduction, it's easy, take one step forward and two steps back. Give a little and wait. He remembers each time Chris asks him to mess around he has to tell him to go fuck himself.

Yuri sits down onto his bed and opens the black folder on it, pictures and science papers spill out of it. He flips through the pictures, the news paper clippings, published science journals. _Dr. Nikiforov_ is famous in the molecular biology world. There are old pictures of him as a graduate student with long silvery hair smiling next to his supervisor Yakov Feltsman, another legend. _College girls must flock over him when he was their teaching assistant back then_ , Yuri smirks. The media too, also seemed a little more interested in his personal life. But unfortunately for those vultures, there was not much to discover.

During his training, his master taught him the art of reading people. Yuri speculates, _he is probably a workaholic who neglects his personal life, like dark coffee, has a handful of friends in real life, and lives off ramen._ Yuri takes out his phone and scrolls through the headlines including notorious websites that he cannot believe he wasted 5 seconds of his life browsing. Girls online claiming to have dated Victor. 'Victor Nikiforov broke my heart’. 

_I can't believe there are people make a living writing all of this shit._

Yuri's master also taught him to become anyone. He smiles as he practices an innocent expression, he decided to become an average bespectacled 23 year old that others would not take care to look twice. He pulls out a white dress shirt and an old blue tie from the bottom of the closet and swiftly throws his black outfit onto the ground. Moonlight through his windows illuminates his bare back, lithe and covered with shapes outlined in fine ink.

 _What should my story be..._ he thought to himself... _fresh out of college, shy, a virgin, does not know how to socialize, worked in temp jobs and this is my first real job. I have big hopes and dreams, I want a dog, a brown poodle to be specific._ He amuses himself weaving together the details of his new life. _My parents own a small modest boutique hotel near the ocean on the warm side of the country...what if my life really is this simple, this ordinary_...He pauses for a moment.

He gazes back at his reflection in the mirror, his hair is slicked back, he ruffles it forwards until several locks fall in front of his glasses. "Y-Yuri...Katsuki," he blushes extending a hand towards the mirror as he gazes down to the ground, "nice to meet you." His decided to project a submissive aura.

_Perfect._

* * *

Suddenly the moonlight through his curtain brightens and snow comes into his apartment accompanied by howling wind outside.

 _Clank,_ reflexively his pulls his blade as it collides with another. 2 more clashes, effortlessly he blocks his attacker, who is fast like a gold flash of lightning.

He can hear his opponent gritting his teeth as he blocks each of his advance effortlessly. His attacker is under a black hooded sweater, on the front a fading tiger. A few locks of blonde hair leaks from under his hood as he leaps back.

There is the sound of scream outside, Yuri pauses for a split second.

"Gotcha!" Yurio smirks as he glances at Yuri's new disguises and wrinkles his nose pointing his sword at Yuri's throat. "Your kindness is what will kill you, big brother."

Suddenly Yurio finds himself pinned onto the ground with his arm twisted behind him and a blade next to his neck.

"And what will kill you," Yuri smirks back behind his blue framed glasses, "is your pride." _He's gotten so much stronger_ , Yuri can't help but feel proud of his brother.

Yurio growls as he pushes Yuri off him and stands up soundlessly. "What's with the dorky look?" He tosses a convenient store rice ball at Yuri.

Yuri catches it swiftly in front of his nose and takes a bite. "got myself hired as an assistant to the famous Dr. Nikiforov."

"You make me sick pulling that innocent graduate student shit, Yuri," Yurio unwraps the other rice and sits next to his sworn brother. "and for fuck sake close the window, it's not like you are keeping bodies in here."

Then Yuri felt a something warm rub against his leg, as if intruding into his cold and frigid world, "Yurio, watch your language, "he feebly attempts to give his brother a lecture, but he knows his brother won't listen to a word of it, "and we can't. I am taking him outside now." He looks down at the cat with long white hair and blue-green eyes.

Yurio sticks out his middle finger.

Yuri sighs, it's better to leave a stray cat alone than to give it the false hope of a home, somewhere warm, then disappear and leave it in the cold again...but suddenly he remembers how he met Yurio. Like a stray kitten that he found from the streets as well, after he killed for the first time in his life and he thought that he was losing his mind.

* * *

 

 


	2. The Day I Met You

In his world love is only a mean to an end.

A luxury beyond his grasp and comprehension.

He wonders if in his line of work he would live past the age of 30. 

* * *

 

"Dr. Nikiforov..." Yuri looks onto the ground, appearing flustered. His office is brightly lit, with large windows that overlook the city bathed in morning light. He squints a little, he hates bright places. All of a sudden he feels naked. He is much more comfortable moving in the shadows where he belongs. Connected to his office is the rooftop through two double glass doors. A spider plant hangs from a weaved basket from the roof.

  
"Please, call me Victor," a curtain of silvery hair falls in front of his blue green eyes, as he extends a hand.

  
His hand shake is warm and firm.

  
Warm and bright things makes Yuri cringe.

  
Victor is in a white coat with the letters _V. Nikiforov_ embroidered in cursive silver on the left of his chest. Underneath his white coat he has on a simple magenta colored shirt and grey dress pants that fits perfectly. Behind him is a tall mahogany bookcase that spans across the entire high ceiling. There is a small mobile ladder. Many of the books has his name printed along the spine.

  
"I...I read your articles..." Yuri still cannot look at him in the eyes. "All of them." He makes himself blush behind his blue rimmed glasses. "And I have heard you speak, a number of times," This is not a lie. Victor is famous. Yuri heard his talks a many times. It take one tenth of the average person's time for Yuri to learn. His master made him obtain a number of degrees for their line of work, for getting into the heart of their enemies. He often wonders, what if he was just a care free college student like those laughing next to him, planning their next weekend out drinking, and the biggest worry is the results of the STD panel...

Yuri did his homework, he read all about Victor's research and marvelled at its simple elegance. Very little is known about his personal life, and he has nowhere to look. Victor had always been a private person and the buzzing media has nothing on him. He always had grinned and brushed them off. The mysterious intelligent, athletic bachelor who also happens to be one of the top researchers in the world. Yuri cannot help but wonder what he did to the numerous admirers, if he'd ever go to bars...let himself go, or wake up next to someone.

  
"I read your resume," Victor breaks him out of his thoughts, takes a sip of black coffee out of his plain white mug, and smiles, "impressive."

"...thank you," Yuri bows his head. 

"Victor?" Suddenly a beautiful woman with short red hair and bellflower eyes interrupts, "you have an urgent message."

Swiftly Victor stands from his chair, "thanks Mila," he pats Yuri on the back as he walks past him.

"Relax, will you," Yuri heard a slight tease in his voice. The soft warmth of his hands lingers on his back.

"Yes, yes," Yuri hastily nods, appearing the opposite of being relaxed. _This is too easy,_ Yuri notes to himself. _I have the right amount of awkward injected inside me._ He is proud of himself. Distracted by the warmth of his hands and his light freshly shaved scent. Victor does not have a single hint of arrogant air about him despite being on top of the world. All of this is making Yuri cringe on it inside. It makes him feel dirty in comparison. He killed, deceived, stole and set things fire, intelligently, not because he wanted to, or out of a sick insatiable obsession, but out of necessity. He hasn't tried going as far as Chris, another one of the agents, who sleeps with people in exchange for information...Yuri reflexively touches the spot at the base of his neck where a tiny chip had been implanted. That tiny chip reminded him of the reason he is in the organization, his reason for fighting. That chip set him free from a very dark place. 

  
"Yuri," Victor returns, his face ashen, "there is an unexplained death, I need your help with an autopsy."

  
Yuri nods. He amused himself briefly thinking that this job would not involve dead bodies until the end when he'll clean up Victor's, but he was wrong.

  
Yuri follows Victor down two sets of spiral stairs to Lab 3. Yuri takes care to conceal his tattoos on his back as he removes his shirt facing Victor. He tried not to stare at Victor at the same time. The change room reminds him of a cleaner version of the change room in his college days. Then following Victor's lead, Yuri zips the front of his blue isolation suit.

  
_He would look different without his glasses,_ Victor without thinking, takes a step forward removes Yuri's blue framed glasses.

  
Yuri freezes in his tracks, "Victor," he is still getting used to calling the famous Dr. Nikiforov by his first name."what are you-"

  
Victor's lips part for a brief second as he gazes at Yuri's face.

  
Yuri feels naked again. The places on his face where Victor's fingertips brushes feels tingling. 

  
Those glasses are his association with his current disguise, and Victor suddenly pealed it away.

  
"Sorry," Victor hand him a pair of clear goggles with a circular microscope apparatus over the left eye that can be easily rotated, I meant to hand you these."  
Yuri pushes his hair back and slips on the goggles with the additional microscope apparatus. 

With his glasses gone, hair slicked back Yuri looks like his unaltered self.

  
"let's go," they walk through the mist spraying antiseptic together.

 

* * *

  
Yuri calmly unzips the body bag, inside what may have been the face of a young woman is twisted and yellow appearing, as if she aged 50 years instantaneously. There are streaks of dark red running down her face, pouring from her nose and mouth and her ears. There are thousands of tiny hemorrhagic spots across her body.

  
The air inside the isolation chamber is cold, like the cold damp darkness Yuri is so used to.

  
Victor watches him work with admiration. He watches him meticulously sink his scalpel in a precise manner, untouched and unfazed. They worked in solemn silence in perfect sync. Removing the organs, weighing it. Putting it back. They recorded images using the automatic features of their goggles. 

  
Victor watches with amazement as if his nervous assistant transformed into a completely different person. He seems so unsure of himself, yet in his work he has absolute poise and confidence, _who are you, Yuri?_

  
_They are not sure how long have passed as they worked in silence. Yuri's eyes are wide with concentration. "We are finished." Yuri breaks the silence._

  
"Sad isn't it? She is so young." Victor's blue green eyes gazes onto the sterile white tiled ground.

  
The body of the woman cannot be more than the age of 30. Yuri often wonders if he will live past the age of 30. The nature of his work means any day could be his last.

  
"Yuri, let's head out," Victor's gentle voice echoes eerily across the room.

  
"You can head out first," Yuri picks up sutures and begins to stitch the body back together, "I would like to put her back together."

  
Victor nods, "don't exhaust yourself, you worked hard today."

  
Yuri purses his lips and nods back, one by one he stitches all of the places where his scalpel broke the skin. It's only right this way...

* * *

 

Yuri walks up to Victor's office and found him fast asleep at his desk. His silvery locks falling onto the piles of paper on his desk. His face peaceful and serene. _His hair looks so soft._

  
Yuri had an urge to run his fingers through his hair, but stops himself halfway. _What are you doing..._

  
He watches Victor's chest rise and fall, evenly, defencelessly and peacefully.

  
Yuri suddenly had a feeling as if Victor's been in his life all along.

  
He stops resisting and runs his hand through those soft silver locks the same colour as those eyelashes. 

  
Victor's chest continues to rise and fall.

  
_What the hell of you think you are doing..._ Yuri shakes his head.  
Victor's window is open, Yuri picks up his white coat and gently drapes it over Victor's shoulders and disappears into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoy this story please share your thoughts in the comments below. I had a fun time writing Yuri's character, making him twisted, cruel and kind at same time. 
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!  
> xoxo  
> -Antares


	3. Double Life

Things about Dr. Victor Nikiforov that he learned:

He only drinks black coffee with nothing in it.

He neglects his life for his work.

He is an airhead when it comes to directions.

He fiddles with his sleeve if he is feeling nervous.

Yuri was trained to be observant, to read people and their motives. He watches Victor's every move. 

* * *

 

"Black coffee," Georgi puts down the white mug, wrinkling his nose, "after all these years..." he shakes his head. Wondering about the appeal in Victor's taste in coffee.

Mila tosses a paper bag onto Victor's desk, "I know you'd forget to eat."

Yuri thought to himself, _he is an airhead when it comes to life, it must be a compensation for his intelligence in the academic world._

"You know me the best, Mila," there is a shallow dimple on the left of his cheeks." He bites into the warm chocolate croissant.

"Hey Yuri, you want some?" He sips his coffee. Yuri's eyes have adjusted to the rightness of his office like a glass house with high ceilings.

"I'm good...thanks," he gazes through the glass wall onto the rooftop, there is a picnic table covered by a thin layer of snow, several chairs with an umbrella that is closed. Surrounding the rooftop Christmas lights running across. Along 2 walls of the roof, a ridge filled with dirt where plants would grow in the summer.

"Mila built this space," Victor props his chin along his desk.

"She is amazing," Yuri puts on his best amazed look face, his lips slightly part. The girl with the bellflower eyes, and dressed in pencil skirts and heels turns out to be a talented handyman. Yuri is not the only one here whom is more than meets the eye.

This place seems like Victor's home. When Yuri was gathering information about his life by his sources hacking through the government census, he couldn't find any of Victor's living relatives. There are no pictures of his parents, simply names and that they are deceased.

"Here's my preliminary report of the body..." Yuri drops off a stack of paper onto Victor's desk and begins to turn and leave.

"The cell cytology seems like the cause of death is viral."

Victor nods, looking serious for a second. Then he starts to stare at Yuri's blue tie, his smile widens, "I am going to get you a new one."

"Really?" Yuri blushes, "I...kind of like this one.."

Yuri walks into the kitchen looking for a mug and overhears Mila saying, "the only thing he eats is ramen and take out food." He heard the sounds of her box cutter slicing through tape. "Unbelievable," another two cases of ramen that he had delivered. "He needs to get married or something..." then she notices Yuri and smiles, "oh hey Yuri, you know any girls who are single and knows how to take care of others and don't mind a super intelligent man in science but an airhead in...life?

Yuri chuckles nervously...

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No."

"Any exes?" Mila teases.

"No comment." He shakes his head nervously.

* * *

  
Yuri pushes open the double doors with the signs "Eternal". He nods at the man in a suit opening the door for him, "Guang Hong."

"Yuri," he may seem small but he is one of the fastest and strongest fighters in the nameless organization.

Inside of the darkly lit club, a black crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling, _that must cost the master a pretty penny_. Yuri notes. 

He walks past several customers in suits. Eternal is one of those places only few high profile customers knows of. Exclusive, and invitation only, it is also an unspoken place the where the underbelly of the world deals their cards.

Yuri walks past an olive skinned girl with bright violet eyes wearing a form fitting dress with a glass of scotch on her platter and fine layers of tiny gold chains from her neck, "Sara," Yuri nods. Her violet eyes lights up.

"Going to the Box?"

"Yea," Yuri continues to walk toward the back of the club. He feels like he is being watched, as a tall another tall figure with olive skin and violet eyes walks past him.

"Michele," Yuri greets him.

Michele Crispino raises one eyebrow, and gives him an _'I'll kill you if you touch my sister'_ look and nods to acknowledge his presence. 

  
Yuri walks past the kitchen and waves at the pastry chef placing sugar pearls with a pair of long forceps on a tiny 3 tired cake.

He finally pushes through a pair of double doors.

The Box is a place where the organization trains its members in combat, the walls are insulated and painted black. There is a boxing ring in the middle.

Yuri wraps his hands in bandages preparing for practice. Suddenly he blocks the hand that is approaching and trying to grab his ass, "Fuck off Chris."

"Yuu-ri...that's not sexy at all," he shakes his head. 

"Looks like Yurio is about to be ready for missions." Yuri freezes for a second as he turns his head sharply towards the ring.

His little brother, fast like s flash of lightning easily pins his opponent onto the ground. Panting he releases the other boy his age and bows. Nobody his age matches up to him.

Yuri's heart sinks, this is just like his brother, to be good at everything. He was hoping Yurio would be average or below so he would not get noticed and to be sent on missions. He doesn't want his brother to stain his hands with blood. 

"Yurio, let's go," Chris tosses him a wooden sword, takes off his shirt revealing his defined muscles and swiftly jumps into the ring. Of course, Chris would take any chance he has to take off his clothes and to flaunt those muscles. 

Yurio smirks and with decisiveness and deadly precision of Yurio's attacks, not even giving his opponent an opportunity to breathe. In the dim light the two clash, like a dance. A few perfect blocks and Yurio leaps up into the air for a roundhouse kick, and Chris blocks him with one arm. An ordinary fighter cannot last 1 minutes with Chris as opponent, but it had been ten.

Yuri saw his little brother's forehead glisten with sweat and knows fatigue is catching up with him.

Then Chris blocks his fist with one hand and knocks off his sword with the other.

  
Cheers, whistles and sounds of awe suddenly stops as a masked figure slowly steps towards the ring as he applauds.

The master is here.

  
_No..._ Yuri sighs, he is afraid that Yurio attracting the wrong kind of attention.

"Well well, looks like you are ready before I was anticipating, Yuratchka."

Yurio smirks from the hood of his faded tiger shirt.

Yuri shudders

* * *

 

Yuri washes off the sweat after sparring with Chris, in deep thought. He slams his fist against the wall of the shower stall, he does not want his brother to live a life like his own. But Yurio insisted on joining the organization, and on proving himself.

Yuri pulls on his usual black outfit, his hair slicked back and his blue rimmed glasses hang from his collar.

"Feed me," Yurio's hair is still wet, "give me katsudon."

Yuri smiles, "as you wish." He puts his hand in Yurio's wet hair, making it messy. Yurio slaps his hand away. 

He pulls out the ingredients from the kitchen in the Eternal. He developed a hobby for cooking, as he had to disguise as a kitchen apprentice for a previous mission. Hired by an opponent of the chef who owns the prestigious restaurant. Yuri is amazed at the amount of greed and how far people are willing to take revenge. But more fruitful than his mission, he stole their recipes, to Yurio's delight.

"Here, wash these," he hands the vegetables to Yurio, who took them without complaints.

As efficiently as he is on an assassination mission he batters and fries the meat and the eggs.

"Who is the extra portion for? Can I eat it?" Yurio grins as the aroma fills the kitchen.

"No, you greedy little -"

Yurio sticks out his tongue.

 _What if we were not assassins,_ Yuri wonders, _what if...we are ordinary people, with jobs, friends, families..._ Sometimes he fantasizes about being ordinary. 

Yuri packs the extra portion in a box. "See you back home." He sends Yurio off.

* * *

 

Victor is asleep at his desk again when Yuri came back to the lab. Yuri sighs as he puts the container with his katsudon that Yurio had been raving about in front of him.

He watches Victor's even and breaths wondering when he would have to plunge a knife into his neck one day, or to get rid of him quickly with his poison. He prefers poison, it's cleaner. He used to have nightmares about scrubbing his hands clean. The first few times he killed, a long long time ago, he couldn't stop washing his hands because he thought they would never be clean. His washed them until they are raw even though the blood is long gone.

His master's words comes to mind, "stay close to him, befriend him, seduce him, I don't care what you do to him..." he had to get close to women before for information, went on dates, he never felt anything. 

Yuri takes off his glasses and sets them next to Victor. He wasn't sure what made him do it, but he leans forward and kisses him on the lips.

Suddenly Victor grabs onto his wrist, "stay..." he mumbles. Yuri's could hear his own heart beating. Then a sigh of relief. His lips is surprisingly soft. Victor is still dreaming.

Yuri tucks his falling silver locks behind his ears, covers him with his coat and closes the door silently.

_What is wrong with me..._  
  



	4. Wildfire

Victor opens his eyes as he hears Yuri's footstep fade. He traces the place on his lips where Yuri kissed him, he can't help but feel his face burning.

Yuri Katsuki, just who are you, Victor can hear his own own heart beating. Yuri seems shy, a man of few words, intelligent, calm, unfazed, socially awkward, more than competent in his work... and looks like a completely different person without those glasses. He is...gorgeous.

Victor follows the warmth close to his hands to the warm container next to his hand, he opens it and is immediately drawn by the aroma. He picks up the pair of red chopsticks laid out before him. He opens the lid, wow, this smells out of this world.

Katsudon huh, he takes a bite, this taste out of this world too, did he make this? He had never finished eating something this fast. Suddenly, without realizing it he couldn't control the stinging in his eyes. He begun to remember the last time he was at home with his parents, the faces of his parents begun to blur already in his memory, he remembered the last time he had a meal like this at home he must be 6 years old, St. Petersburg was snowing that day, it was Christmas, and his birthday. Not even Georgi and Mila know about his past, there is not much to tell anyways. He opens his drawer and there is an old photograph its edge burnt. In front of the fireplace of their modest home is six year old version of him, with messy silver hair grinning at the brown poodle in front of him, and his parents in laughing, and in mid conversation when the picture was taken. It was Christmas and his birthday. He had just unwrapped a new truck from his father.

Inside his drawer is the only other object of his parents that remains, his father's gold wedding band. Inside the ring, his parents' names side by side, in a never ending circle. Yulia & Vitya.

Shortly after that picture was taken, his parents packed up their entire life and moved to a smaller town, he didn't understand why. He knew they were University professors. Then few months later the fire took everything from him, at least that is the official story anyways. He picks up the ring and twirls it on his thumb of one hand, and cupping his chin with one hand.

He closes the drawer and puts the ring next to the burnt photograph. Part of him feeling guilty for beginning to forget what his parents look like.

* * *

 

There are only a handful of professions filled with people who are more full of shit than the medical profession. Phichit thought quietly to himself.

It's been 7 hours since he last drank or took a piss, his mouth feels dry, he stands over the operating table. Before him is the patient's open skull and the brain pulsates rhythmically in sync with the heart. The beeping from the machines already faded into the background. His brain is already numb to it. The surgery chief Celestino watches his every move with scrutiny. If only I was not standing next to this asshole, Phichit thought, next to him is a tall muscular man by the name of JJ. He smirks a little, as JJ, a master at brown nosing seemed to back fire this time and landed him as second assist.

"Retract here please," Phichit tries to keep the smirk off his voice as he looks over at JJ. He hands JJ a retractor to pull a flap of tissue away. That's right, retract you bitch. He deserves this, Phichit thought. "Biopsy needle." With quiet confidence Phichit guides the needle through and takes his sample. "Done." The experienced nurse is already waiting with a small container filled with formaldehyde.

"Leroy, you can close," Celestino is pleased with Phichit's work. In neurosurgery, going too fast means trouble, so is going too slow.

Phichit is a neurosurgeon in the last year of his training, the master forbids him to go into hand to hand combat missions for the past 6 years. He didn't mind, he would trade standing for hours in the cold and sterile operating room for sparring. He used to hate it when he practices with Yuri, because Yuri had always wins. Yuri was sent to missions where he had to fight and Phichit, sent into training where his blood has been replaced with caffeine. He does not usually see the sun very much.

One year to go, he thought to himself, before he becomes a full fledged neurosurgeon. He removed the blue gown, and his mask, shoves them down the red biohazard bin, steps onto the pedal turning on cool water as he ritualistically washes his hands up to his elbow, while thinking about the kind of food to order, or maybe he can pin down Yuri to make him food at the back of the Eternal...he licks his cracker lips as he thinks about katsudon.

Suddenly the operating room nurse hastily walks towards him, "patient's coding."

Fuck, he internally swears. How is this possible, moments ago the patient's vitals were stable, the 7 hours long procedure to remove the tumor was his finest work, even Celestino has nothing to say about it. Coding means the heart stopped in medical language. He sighs and re-enter the operating room and slides on a pair of blue gloves. JJ is by the patient's side pressing on his sternum over and over.

"Epi," JJ calmly tells the nurse next to him. As she pushes the contents of the clear syringe.

"Let me take over the compressions," Phichit sees the beads of sweat from JJ's forehead. Compressing the chest at 100 times per minutes gets exhausting, setting aside the occasional times when ribs break...Even though he thinks JJ is an asshole and a narcissist, he grudgingly acknowledges his calmness.

They work seamlessly as a team, calm, collected, all personal grudges aside. The only sounds are of the patient's chest recoiling, and the heart monitor's steady lack of rhythmic beeping.

Then amidst the chest compressions, Phichit watched in horror as streaks of blood run from the patient's eyes and drops of foaming blood coming from the tube inside the patient's mouth as he begins to seize. Phichit is covered with cold sweat, his green scrubs feel sticky against his body. He knows, it's too late. Unlike how things are in stupid medical dramas on TV, most real life cardiac end this way, blood, wrappers of medications littered on the floor. How is it that within minutes the patient is bleeding from everywhere...

"Damnit," JJ mutters under is breath. His disappointed blue eyes meets Phichit's for a brief second as he slams his fist on the instrument tray knocking a few over.

"I'll pronounce him, you take a break," Phichit climbs down from the stool that the operating nurse tucked under his feet to optimize the height for his chest compressions.

"Thanks," JJ sighs and pushes open the door of the operating room.

The patient's pupils stayed dilated when he shines his penlight in. With gloved hands, Phichit closes the patient's eyes, leaving a streak of blood on his gloves. He says a simple prayer in his mind and squeezes the patient's cooling hands. This patient does not have any family, he recalls. He felt guilty for a split second for feeling a sense of relief. He recalls the last time a patient passed away unexpectedly and the family members crowded the entire floor crying. And he will never forget the sound of a primal scream before a child passed out from shock.

I definitely need some katsudon tonight. He thought as he washes his hands up to his elbow the second time. Like everything else in medicine is paperwork, death means at least an hour and half of paperwork afterwards. He does not have to do this often, as Celestino's prided trainee, 99% of his surgeries do not end like this. Medical training gave him a thickened skin, and a tough exterior, but underneath the kind part of him decided to do the paperwork in JJ's place.

He takes his phone and sends a text message, "we are sending another body your way, similar presentation to patient zero...give me some goddamned katsudon."

Then he picks up a black pen and starts on the stack of death related paperwork. He opens a can of energy drink and finishes half of it in one gulp realizing he hasn't drank, eat or went to the bathroom in 8 hours now and his stomach protests in an angry gurgle. Ouch, must be all that coffee irritating my stomach after all these years.

* * *

 

Yuri opens the door of Victor's office with a giant mug of black coffee. "Here." He puts it in front of Victor, not meeting eye contact.

"Thanks for the food last night," Victor notices Yuri blush. "It tastes out of this world."

"It's nothing, a hobby of mine," Yuri nods as he pushes the frame of his glasses upwards.

"It's the best bowl of noodles I have ever had, I mean it." Victor's eyes meets Yuri's for a brief moment before Yuri quickly gazes onto the ground.

"My little brother likes to eat, " Yuri surprises himself for opening up to him, and being honest, "I have to keep learning to keep up with him."

"He is so lucky," Victor flashes one of his big smiles.

Yuri blushed more and hastily turns to leave. So far so good, he thought to himself, the master would be proud of me.

Victor had to suppress his imagination for a few seconds, he wanted to pull Yuri by his tie, and pin him to the desk...take off his glasses...and do things to him...Stop it...he shakes his head, "Hey Yuri, after work today, can I treat you to a few drinks?"

Perfect, Yuri thought to himself. He purposely hesitates for a moment, puts one finger to his chin pretending to be thinking, "I need to make dinner for my brother, I suppose after that it'll be alright...but you see, I don't have much tolerance...not sure how long I can keep you company." In truth, he is a bottomless pit. Alcohol does not affect him. In prior missions, he can always outdrink the targets that he is either trying to get rid of, or get close for information. He hates the smell of beer especially spilled beer that dries later on, he hates the alcohol reeking breath of women he previously had to lean close to until their lips touch.

"I'll take care of you," Victor beams. Then internally he pinches himself, I hope I don't sound too eager...

"Phichit!" Yuri waves at his one friend from the organization from the kitchen of the Eternal.

"Hi Yuri it's been a while," Phichit is wearing a simple black T shirt and jeans, his hair still wet from the shower he recently took. "Katsudon tonight?" He looks hopeful.

"Too late, you missed it from yesterday," Yuri opens the doors to the refrigerator size of a room searching for ingredients. Aha, he found the head of the cabbage amongst the racks of food. On the other of the wall of this fridge is another fridge the same size. But that's where they sometimes keep the bodies, in the crevasse of the maze at the back of the Eternal where even Yuri do not have permission to enter.

"Cut the cabbage, will you," he gestures towards the cutting board. "Wait, never mind, not the neurosurgeon with his precious hands."

Phichit rolls his eyes, feeling like his energy drink is wearing off. He often wonders if someone can die from drinking too many energy drinks.

"One more year to go," Yuri measures the flour and pours it into a mixing bowl.

Phichit looks back at him darkly, "it's worse than being a slave," he refers to medical training called residency. He thought about JJ again, and how he had to compete with such arrogant narcissistic asshole and claw his way to the top. His program had to recruit more than they intend to graduate. He sighs.

"Surgery did not go well I am guessing," Yuri mixes the dough.

"I did everything right, Celestino didn't say anything even, and he even told JJ to stop being an asshat and be my retractor bitch today," he cuts the cabbage in thin perfect precision, "but as soon as I left the patient's heart stopped, we did chest compressions for 40 minutes. But you should have seen the brain tissue, it looked...dead, then the patient begun bleeding from every orifice of his body."

Sounds strangely like the other body that Victor and him had done the autopsy on...Yuri thought, while melting the yellow butter and inhaling its aroma.

They chatted on about blood, and brains and everything in between as a normal everyday conversation. Phichit is the one person apart from his brother whom he can be completely himself with.

Ding!

"It's ready," Yuri pulls out the pan filled with steaming Pirozhkis from the oven.

"Take some of these into the Box for Yurio, will you?" Yuri admires his handiwork as he picks up 3 with a pair of tongs and puts them into a brown paper bag.

"Someone here is anxious to leave," Phichit winks.

"It's work related, that's all." Yuri responds stiffly. "Shut up and eat your Pirozhki."

* * *

 

10:30 pm, he gazes down at his watch. Victor is waiting for him in his office on the roof.

"Sorry, I was running late," Yuri fumbles to take off his gloves. He hands a brown bag filled with Piroshki.

"That's alright," Victor hands to him a cup filled with warm red liquid. "Warm wine."

Gingerly he takes a sip, sweet warmth fills his entire body.

"Care for some air outside?" Victor pulls on a grey coat and begins to wrap a blue scarf around his neck. As if he read Yuri's mind. Yuri loves the dark crisp coldness of February.

They step onto the rooftop and walk towards the rails. The city seems quiet and distant from this high up. Lights from the moving cars below flow together like a golden river. Clouds cover the moonlight in the distance.

They gaze up together into the night sky. In a few moments after their eyes adjust to the darkness and the constellations begin to reveal themselves. Orion, the hunter, directly overhead. Scorpio, with its bright red heart on the other side of the sky.

"Amazing aren't they," Victor turns towards him, "makes me feel small and insignificant." He sip is wine.

"I always wonder if the stars we are looking at still exist at this moment in time, since their light can take thousands of years to reach us, we are essentially looking at their past." A shooting star glides across the sky. Yuri knows the constellations by heart because Yurio likes their stories. He remembers the night he and Yurio sworn to become family, it was a night like this, on a rooftop. When Yurio was younger he always bugged Yuri for stories. Despite long days from missions, Yuri would still think long and hard.

They watches the starts in silence, "Victor, tell me a story."

Victor purses his lip thinking for a brief moment, "Okay, have you ever heard the story of the elephant and the rope?"

"No."

"A man passes by a circus and is puzzled by a large elephant being tied by a thin rope and not running away. So he asks the circus master why does the elephant escape. The circus master responds, when the elephant was a baby, she was tied to the tiny rope, she pulled and struggled against it, but was unable to break free." Wind sweeps several silver locks before his blue-green eyes, "so the elephant stopped trying, because she believed she cannot escape the ropes." The only limits are the ones we put on ourselves, Victor firmly believes that we are limitless, like the endless night sky.

A long silence.

Yuri turns his face away from Victor for a second, he appears serious for a split second...finally Yuri says, "Good story."

"Here's a question for you, Yuri, what aren't you good at?" Victor teases.

"Lots of things, like dancing..." a lie. Meeting conversations with new people..." another lie. "Lying..." He can become anyone, that is one thing he does the best.

Suddenly Victor grabs his hand and flashes a mischievous smile, "Let's dance!"

"But-" Yuri utters reluctantly, his face turning red.

"Relax and let me lead," Victor's puts his other and around Yuri's mid back. He takes one step forwards as Yuri steps back, then he leads Yuri from side to side.

Initially Yuri's steps were clumsy, but soon they become in sync.

Victor watches Yuri's expression slowly change, from shy and embarrassed to a slight smile. Their breathes white against the dark night.

Victor can sure dance, Yuri thought. Yuri imagined for a second...what if he does not have to lie to Victor...he would be the one leading the passionate flamenco and watch the way Victor's narrow hips move,and pull him close against himself, so close to be able to hear his heartbeats and feel the shape of his body against his own, cupping his face into his hands. Yuri's heart accelerates with these thoughts. What it would be like to wake up with his face on Victor's bare chest, inhaling his soft scent. What it would be like to have Victor's hands all over him...

Dance is another one of those things his master made him learn. To create music with his body, to seduce others with his movements and touch. He can sure as hell dance.

They lost track of time, more clouds are now gathering above, tiny glistening flakes begin to fall from the sky.

Victor leans forward until their foreheads are touching, Yuri notices how long his eye lashes are, his hand still clasped onto Yuri's as if holding the most precious thing in the world.

Yuri's gaze locks with his for a split second as he notices the beautiful smile of the man before him leans closer and begins to close his eyes.

Yuri feels an emotion he never felt before, it has s sharp edge to it and a gnawing at the pit of his stomach...what if their lips meet he would not be able to hold the reins? What if the kisses would deepen? What if they would end up on the floor of Victor's office, and that Victor would see the most private parts of him - the tattoos on his back, containing secrets that he told no one...and what if one day if he is ordered to plunge a knife into Victor's chest that he would hesitate.

Mantis, what is wrong with you, Yuri reminds himself of his nickname that his master gave him, as the top mercenary in the nameless organization. Lethal and cruel, like the mantis in the animal kingdom that eats its mate while consummating.

Yuri instead pulls Victor into a tight hug, "you had too much to drink, get some rest...Thanks, for tonight."

They said goodbye, Yuri holds his coat in his hands to soak in the crisp air of the winter night. He thought of the elephant, and the thin rope that she does not believe that she can break free. He hugs himself tightly. His body feels hot, as if his whole being is burning, like wildfire.

* * *

 

Big thank you to my readers & subscribers!This chapter is a lot of fun to write. Feel free to leave me a comment below with your thoughts or constructive criticism.

Anyone else really like Phichit? He will play a bigger role later on in the story.

xoxo

-Antares


	5. Father Figure

**Chapter 5: Father Figure**

"Mantis," the master sits in a slightly slouched position, "I have something to tell you." His black suit neat behind his mahogany desk. He interlaces his wrinkled hands together his signet ring on the right pinky taps against his desk. His white mask reflecting eerily off the dark wood.

 _Stop it,_ Yuri commands his racing heart to stop...the master is more manipulative and observant than anyone he has ever known. Yuri feels like a specimen lying pinned down on the dissection tray. _What if he is going to make me dispose of Victor..._

"You are the best of us, Yuri," his master suddenly sounds old. Nobody has seen his face in the past, his master is at the menacing height of 6 feet. "There is no doubt in that.

Yuri shuffled his feet, "thank you."

"In truth, I have been training you not as a mere agent," he taps his hand on the desk, then pauses, "but as my replacement."

Yuri lifts his chin.

"When this mission is over," the master toys with the golden signet ring with the silhouette of a crow and a single onyx for its eye, "I will pass the organization to you." He removes the ring and places it on the desk before them. Through the slits of the mask he watches Yuri.

Yuri masks his reaction of shock the best that he could. He picks up the signet ring and kisses it. Its surface rough from the years, the crow intricate down to every feather, beautiful and sinister at the same time. This ring means the ultimate power of the organization, there is an ancient unspoken rule obey its possessor unconditionally. Yuri always thought that rule sounds...medieval. Chills run down Yuri's spine. He thought of the story of the elephant Victor told him on the roof...when this mission is over, his heart sinks, after I kill Victor. But then I can then set Yurio free...he starts to count silently to lengthen his breathes, to keep himself from trembling and from imagining the possibilities. The mysterious organization has many secrets as its wealth.

Yuri never saw his master as an old man. He always had a mixture of fear and awe towards the silent and deadly giant. He remembers the night that the master removed him from his foster family that haunted his dreams. He remembers the night he holds out his small hand towards the master's thick and rough one. His small hand covered by cigarette burns. He often wondered why him. Why the master travelled and tracked him down.

He is the closest thing to a father that he ever had. He taught him 7 languages, he taught him to be a fighter. He gave him a chance to attend the best colleges. Katsuki Yuri is _smart_ , his master taught, and he learned. Including the art of deception, to steal, to kill without spilling blood or making a sound.

Yuri places the ring down on the table, the master puts it back onto his little finger.

"Continue to watch Nikiforov," his master stands up. "There is a project that he worked on named Delta with Yakov Feltsman when he was a graduate student, but it was scrapped, I want you to to take the data."

_Delta...Victor never mentioned it before. Looks like you have secrets too..._

Yuri nods, hiding his sudden sign of relief.

"Bring in your brother," Yuri can hear the smile behind that white ivory mask, "he is ready to be initiated. You should be proud."

Yuri's heart sinks again. He takes a sharp inhale and reluctantly nods.

Initiated means he is ready to be sent for missions. He could be sent to kill...he will have the chip implanted in his neck, the one every member of the organization possess. The chip can transmit the location, send the SOS signal, and finally there is a death function. In dire situations or when cornered, the chip allows its owner to end his own life...Yuri remembers his initiation and the the old neurosurgeon, who always smells like chewing tobacco and whose hand tremor is getting worse year after year.

The dungeon like office at the back of the Eternal had never seemed so cold. For some reason Yuri is craving to see Victor at this moment, he remembers their night on the roof, his warm hands, the way locks of his silver hair brushes softly against his cheek. A part of him crave for that lingering warmth.

* * *

Yuri was 18 at the time when he met his little brother. He remembers it like yesterday. That day the merciless heat of the sun of the equator roasts his back. Though he liked the feel of wind in his hair when he rides the motorcycle and the lemonade.

He was on a mission stalking the head of a human trafficking organization, and he is getting close. Hopefully by tonight, I'll dispose of him, he thought. Then his instincts tells him that he is being watched. Suddenly he turns around and saw a few locks of blonde hair disappear behind the row of motorcycles parked in different directions on the side of the spiraling cobblestone streets. Some street urchin, he thinks to himself. He grips the handle of his pocket knife in his pocket.

He continues to walk along the cobblestone streets, each stone rubbed smooth from pedestrians and motorbikes. There is a bar ahead with red graffiti on its walls coming up, inside a few men wearing white tank tops are talking and laughing raucously. A drop of sweat trickles down Yuri's forehead. Damn, it's hot here. He wipes it off.

Next to the bar is a house painted mint green with chipped paint and boarded windows. He feels like he is being watched again. _It should be here._

Suddenly behind him he sees the bob of messy blonde hair again. Yuri sharply turns around. He turns facing a skinny child with matted hair down to his chin, he thinks it's a boy. His collarbone and top ribs visible over his dirty white Shirt. The boy points to the building and shakes his head.

"Who are you?" Yuri asks. The boy's green eyes appears puzzled. _He doesn't speak English..._ Yuri realizes.

The skinny boy gestures for Yuri to follow him down the next street. _This could be a trap..._ Yuri thought, but those determined green eyes tells him otherwise. Yuri decides to play along. He follows the boy until he is in front of another house also painted mint green with boarded windows.

Yuri casually walks in front of the window and he hears sounds of a muffled cries. _So I was wrong...This is the right place._

He walks away casually and touches the chip embedded inside the back of his neck, he speaks into the hair thin microphone in his collar, "I found the children." That chip in his back transmits his location to the organization. _How did he know..._

* * *

That day is the first time Yuri killed.

His master taught him how to kill, he knows the anatomy well, which vessel to cut, where to stab to make an entire lung collapse. Theoretically he knows it well. Plus his target is a filthy bottom feeder and a piece of shit. He is the contact for an organization that sell drugs and kidnap children and sell them to different countries.

Yuri watches as a beautiful scantly clad woman with flawless tanned skin, bright red lipstick and size of breasts that he wonders if she her back hurts from the weight, leave the room.

He enters the door soundlessly, he hears his target humming in the shower. The room smells like cigarettes and cheap cologne, though he knows the cologne is probably anything but cheap. He tried not to imagine the what else the sharp smell is in the room could be from. He fingers the piano wire in his pocket and his knife.

The humming continues as the sound of water stops. His footsteps approach the bathroom door.

Three.

Two.

One.

Adrenaline fills his body. He is a piece of scum, you are ridding the world of vermin. He reminds himself.

The man is large, balding, with a beefy red neck and face. Before he can even react, Yuri throws him onto the ground with a thud.

Before he can even scream, Yuri's wire is wrapped around his neck. He makes a strange raspy sound. Yuri knows it would not be easy wrestling with someone his size as his sausage like fingers tries to reach for the gun at his waist.

Yuri steps onto his hand and kicks the gun away. Suddenly he finds the beast of a man grasp onto his leg and his balance fails. He wakes up on the ground seeing stars and one of his hands come loose from the piano wire. He realizes the ugly man with reeking breathe is now sitting on top of him and about to punch him with rock like fists.

Calm down.

Calm down.

He remembers those lessons his master taught him, including how to fight. He suddenly dodges to one side and his opponent's fist makes a hole on the wooden floor next to him.

Yuri reached for his knife and with a sweeping motion stabs the man straight in the neck.

He can feel the warm spray of blood rain down onto his face and trickle down his arms. Fresh blood is squirting from the side of that man's neck. He must have hit the carotid. He remembers his master's voice for a moment, blood squirts if you hit an artery...

Yuri watched in horror as the body of the giant fall for the last time, his large belly making a ripple as he makes the final gurgling sound with his throat.

He cannot forget the texture of a human neck being cut open, and the change when he slices through the blood vessels.

Yuri runs inside the bathroom and vomited.

* * *

It seems like forever since he was last standing in the light after the hideous man's chest stopped to ride and fall. He isn't sure how long he spent washing his hands anymore after he threw up in the toilet.

He was expecting his first time to be clean, flawless, quiet, like the way he accomplishes every mission. He has the urge to wash his hands again. He can still taste the metallic blood in his mouth. His stomach growls as he emptied all of the content of his stomach.

"It's done." He whispers into his tiny microphone.

Suddenly he notices that blonde child again. _He must be something_ , he thinks to himself, to be able to stalk me. Though he did lead me to where the children are. Time to end this quick. He is the best in the organization, nobody can stalk him.

"Here take the money," Yuri hands him a handful of change and a few wrinkled bills that luckily wasn't stained by the shower of blood, after that brutal encounter, a part of him softened, "buy something to eat."

The blonde child shakes his head.

"Then get lost!" Yuri lunges forward. The little boy refused to let go of the corner of his black shirt. He would not leave. He did not beg or cry, but clung onto him with his tiny fist, his knuckles white from his tight fist. Yuri quickens his pace. The organization answers to neither authority nor charity. A burning flash of anger courses through him, in his mind he imagined how easily those ribs would break. He suddenly had an urge to wash his hands again. He sighs deeply, his heart pounding so loudly he can hear it. He looks down at the boy once more. Those green cat-like eyes are determined and filled with such dignity...like the eyes of a soldier...

Time seems to stop between them.

Yuri feels the urge to was his hands over and over again, but at same time those green eyes would not look away. That urge somehow went away.

Time seems to start again.

Suddenly Yuri pulls the small boy tightly into his arms. "Fine, I won't run anymore. Are you happy now?" His shirt suddenly feels warm as streams of pearly tears pour from the boy's eyes. Yuri pats his quivering shoulders.

_What are you doing?_

* * *

"My name is Yuri," he points to himself, then at the boy.

" _Yurachka_ ," he sniffles and wipes his nose on his dirty sleeve.

_Russian._

Now he needs to find a Russian dictionary, in the middle of rural South America.

"Let's get you a new shirt and a bath," Even though they do not speak the same language, the little boy looks happy. "Your shirt is covered with snot..." Yuri sighs as he hand the little boy a rough piece of napkin. He gets a flash of warm red blood trickling down from his hands. No, _I am not a monster..._ he resists the urge to vomit and the other urge to wash his hands.

They walk around the market, and Yuri stops by one peculiar clothing stand. Shirts of varying sizes hang from cheap plastic hangers, and all of them has tigers on it. "I think this suits you, little soldier."

The small boy's dirty face suddenly lights up, as the first ray of sunshine after a storm.

* * *

20 more bodies came to their lab in the span of 1 week, skin tinted yellow and dried crusted blood from every orifice.

There is a new heaviness in the air.

Mila stands next to Yuri in the kitchen, Yuri inhales the aroma of coffee while waiting.

"That's Dr. Feltsman," Mila points to the stern looking man on the TV. "Victor graduated from his lab."

Of course Yuri already knew that. Dr. Yakov Feltsman is at the forefront of this line of research. He and Victor published many papers together.

"Dr. Feltsman hates the media," Mila helps herself to a cup of coffee and pours hazelnut creamer into it. Yuri watches the brown and cream colors swirl in her cup. "He used to make his poor post doc student Victor attend press conferences, but these vultures started to dig around about his personal life because, well, the way he looks." Mila chuckles. "He had long hair back then, and more than a handful of admirers."

Yuri felt heat creeping up his face and turns to face the TV.

"A new disease is spreading if I understand correctly," the young reporter in a red suit on the TV screen turns towards a stern appearing man in his 60s with his hair receding, "Dr. Feltsman?"

"I am afraid so." His blue eyes hard.

"What do we know about it so far?"

"Well, first it starts like the flu, with fatigue and high fever, then neurological symptoms begin to manifest rapidly in the late stages. With bleeding from all the mucus membranes. The eyes, nose, inside the organs. It has a similar manifestation as mosquito borne hemorrhagic fever."

"How do you think it spreads," the news reporter frowns.

"It is uncertain, at this point and time, but most likely it is airborne."

"Looks like the government wanted to stay hush hush about this," Mila begins to leave. "But that won't last long."

Yuri wonders for a moment how long this mission would be, and what his next instructions are. He changed the channel on the TV.

"Despite expert opinion, the ministry of health warns us to not jump to conclusions and do not panic..."

He turns the TV off.

* * *

Dr. Feltsman disappeared after that for 3 days, they found his body hanging from a belt in the parking lot of his apartment.

Suicide.

At least that was the official story.

* * *

"Victor, I am so sorry," Georgi puts an arm on his shoulder.

"Thanks," Victor looks outside of the window and made an attempt at a stiff smile. The snow from the morning stopped. The city is covered by a blanket of snow that is not going anywhere. "How are the cell culture going," he changes the subject.

"It's going as planned." Georgi looks concerned, " you have been working straight for 2 weeks."

Victor nods gravely . "We don't have much time, before the epidemic goes out of control."

George's worried eyes meet Yuri's for a split second. Yuri nods. They reach a mutual understanding.

Yuri sees right through the dark circles under his eyes and the fake smile.

He is breaking on the inside.

Victor is shocked when Yuri, his shy assistant commands him, "pack your things, you are coming with me."

"But-," His protest is feeble. He realized the fatigue is catching up with him. Yuri has been bringing him extra coffee.

"Go with him, Mila and I will take care of the lab." Georgi insists. "You need rest."

Yuri drives in silence. Along the side of the road the snow is staying. At a red light he catches the glimpses of the newspaper headlines.

_'New deadly disease on the loose'._

_'Top scientist committed suicide, a coincidence?'_

_'Life of Dr. Yakov Feltsman.'_

_'Personal protective equipment supply running low.'_

_'N95 respiratory mask price skyrocketing'_

The light turns green, Yuri steps onto the gas pedal.

He looks over at Victor in the passenger seat he is fast asleep his chin resting on his chest. Yuri gazes at his long eye lashes.

The snow thicken on the side of the road as they leave the city. Soon Yuri's car is the only one on the road. Night begins to fall so does the snow. His headlights illuminate only a few feet in front of him. Pine trees on either side sway a little, occasionally large chunks of snow fall as the branches could no longer hold the weight.

Victor sleeps by his side.

The road becomes narrower as his car spirals along the side of the mountain, away from the noisy city and the rest of the world.

This cabin is one of Yuri's favorite places, he comes here with Yurio from time to time, with permission from the master after his missions. He remembers Yurio's face when he was nine and tried skiing for the first time, Yuri smiles a little as he remembers his brother falling and spending most of the first two hours on his rear. His English is almost conversational at that time. The organization owns the cabin, amongst myriads of other things including the elusive club named the Eternal. And Yuri will be the leader...

He parks his car and turns off the engine. The world suddenly becomes quiet, except for the sound of the snow falling. He watches Victor sleep for a minute, suddenly wanting to kiss him again, but he resists. He wonders for a second what life would be like if he is perfectly ordinary, then brushes that thought away. He knows if he kisses him he might lose control.

He puts his right hand on Victor's shoulder and gently shakes him, "we are here."

Victor opens his blue-green eyes.

* * *

Yuri tosses several logs into the fireplace. The cabin appears small from the outside, but from the inside the ceiling is high.

Everything is within the view and brightly lit, there are two single beds pushed together, a simple kitchen, and a couch.

"This place should warm up after a while," Yuri turns on the kettle and brings two blue mugs down from the cabinet, one has a white chip on the handle. _That's from Yurio doing the dishes..._

Victor's face looks blank.

Yuri did not say anything, he slowly walks towards Victor and opens his arms.

Victor sinks his face onto Yuri's shoulders. His shoulders feels solid. Yuri wraps one hand around his head and the other around his waist. He presses the taller man firmly against him.

Yuri feels a few wet hot drops on his neck. He holds Victor a little tighter. "Let it out...I am here." They lost track of time.

Yuri pulls back, and with one hand he wipes Victor's tear away. _He is beautiful even when he cries_ , Yuri thinks to himself.

"He was the closest thing to a father to me -" drops continue to fall. Yuri wipes them away again. "I'm sorry -," he sniffles, "this is embarrassing."

His parents died young too...Yuri pulls him closer until their foreheads touch. "You can be yourself with me. You can tell me anything..." _But I can't be myself with you,_ Yuri silently adds. Yuri thinks of the closet thing to a father to him, whose face he has never seen before and wonders if he suddenly dies, which is not uncommon for his line of work, whether he would be realizes he would react the same way. Though for his entire life he feels a mixture of fear and awe.

"He is a fighter, he would never do that," the tears are slowing down. "I should have visited him more often. But I know him, he would never kill himself, especially not now."

Yuri nods, "I am with you, we'll make things right." Their foreheads still touching, he can feel Victor's breaths on his face. "Go take a bath, you'll feel better."

Without thinking Yuri begins to undo Victor's buttons on his white shirt, revealing his muscular chest. Suddenly Yuri realizes what he is doing, "I'll get the bath started." He suddenly walks away, heat rises from his face. _What are you doing?_

Yuri quickly changes his shirt while Victor is in the bath. The stories behind those are the most private parts of him. _What if one day I can be free, and I can show him those stories, what would he think of me then._ _Would he still try to kiss me. I am a monster._ _He feels dirty._ He suddenly has a flashback of the gurgling sound the hideous man he killed for the very first time and his blood spraying onto him and those urges to wash his hands.

Victor's hair is still wet, Yuri sits close to him on the couch and hands him the blue mug with chipped handle. The smell of mint comforting. Victor realizes the way his life changed since he met Yuri. He wasn't sure when, but Yuri made sure he eats 3 meals that is not ramen. He made sure he has black coffee in the morning. The small things Yuri did for him brings tears back to his eyes once again. He remembers the night Yuri ran his hand through his hair thinking he was asleep, and the night he kissed him, _again_ thinking he was asleep, but he remembers all of it.

"The mint tea is from the summer, I bring my brother here, the patch behind the cabin grows each year," Yuri adds.

"Your brother is lucky," Victor says softly, "I would love to meet him one day."

Yuri smiles a little, "he has his teenage angst moments, but he'll like you." Yuri gazes over at the two single beds pushed together. "He takes so much space when he sleeps, I end up on the couch most of the time." He pushes the rim of his blue glasses up and yawns.

Victor listened to him talking about his brother, somehow a little part of his sadness leaves him.

Yuri kisses his forehead before turning off the lights. He did not separate the beds.

Victor feels Yuri's movement on the other side as he lies down. Yuri moves closer to him and wraps his arm around his waist from behind him, he can feel his breaths on his neck.

_Victor, I want to stay with you like this forever._

In between them, only two thin layers of fabric. Victor's chest hurts, partly from the heaviness from Yakov's death, the other part from the indescribable yearning for the beautiful being next to him. _You have no idea about how much I crave you._ He wants to turn around and kiss him, and make him his. When he did, Yuri is fast asleep, his glasses resting on the bedside table, his chest rises and falls evenly. His face peaceful. Victor turns around and buries his face into Yuri's chest and he falls asleep listening to his heart beat.

_Yuri, I think I am in love with you._

* * *

Hi everyone!

I know, this chapter contains a lot of tears...(but it also has where Yurio got his first tiger shirt from).

One of the scenes that inspired this whole story is in the next chapter, it's the first thing I wrote down. I look forward to sharing it with you shortly.

A few scenes & my inspirations:

I was thinking of Michiko & Hatchin (also directed by Sayo Yamamoto...hint: go watch it...) when I wrote the scenes depicting Yurio's back story.

The dance scene from the last chapter made me think of No. 6. Also a beautiful series.

If you enjoy this story, have questions, thoughts or constructive criticism, leave me a comment below!

xoxo

Antares

* * *


	6. From This Day On

A box sits on his desk, his fingers tremble a little as he reaches for it. It has his writing on the address. Yakov's. And the date it was mailed is the same day that he died. Victor runs his finger over the box, over his former teacher's messy scrawl, and where his hand had been. He was the closest thing to a father to him. He recalls the days when he was Yakov's graduate student, back when he had long hair. Yakov is strict, meticulous, and one of the smartest people he has ever known. He was in the military prior to going back to his studies, he carried the discipline and the air of authority with him. Victor remembers for Yakov's birthday he was dragged to the fire range and Yakov applauding at his aim calling him a natural. As much as Victor dislikes guns, his aim is immaculate, he does not miss.

He remembers Yakov smirking at him as he empties the box filled with the summer student job applications, mostly from females.

He remembers the time he told Yakov he doesn't think he is attracted to women, he remembers Yakov's reply filled with love, "well then there is a lucky man somewhere out there." He knew all along.

He gingerly slices through the tape holding the box together. There are two objects inside. He pulls out the simple picture frame that Yakov keeps on his desk.

It's a picture right before his graduation. Yakov is in the center, his smile deepens the wrinkles around his eyes. Next to him is himself with long hair tied back. Mila, two years behind him holding up two fingers making the peace sign.

Opens the back of the picture frame and removes the photo. On the back he finds a single sign, a triangle with its left edge bolded, the Greek letter Delta. He realizes the exact meaning of his former mentor's message. Chills run down his spine.

_Delta._

A discovery that he and Yakov made when he was a graduate student that they decided together to deny its existence in case it ends up in the wrong hands.

Suddenly a memory chip falls out of the picture frame.

With shaking hands Victor plugs it into his computer. A single video clip starts to play. Victor squeezes his fist, the pain deep inside is gnawing at him. His knuckles turning white. He craves Yuri's warm presence now more than anything.

"Vitya, by the time you watch this video, I am already gone." He lets out a short laughter, "to a better place, I sure hope." The video cracks.

"Listen to me Vitya," the lines around his eyes deepen, "there is an organization out there, far bigger, crueler and more advanced than you can ever imagine. I don't have much time, but I was with them...your parents were with them."

_My parents. The fire. Was it not...an accident?_ Questions race through his mind, but there are no answers.

Suddenly Yakov clutches his neck and winces in pain.

"Trust no one, Vitya, and...protect yourself because you might soon be the only hope." He winces again from the pain in his neck. "There is no doubt that they will come after you because I would be gone." His eyes shut tightly from the pain. "Goodbye, Victor. And I am sorry I couldn't tell you more about your parents, I know what you'll do if you knew."

Victor sees small drops of blood roll down Yakov's neck from the back and the tough old man who is a fighter winces again in pain.

"You...you are like a son to me, I wanted you to know, everything I have done was to protect you." He pants, his face appearing more pale. "Remember, the most dangerous place can also be the safest place."

The screen goes black.

The second object in Yakov's box is his old gun.

_It is just like him to send him something like this..._

Outside the closed door Yuri hears everything. _Delta. I found it._ His heart races.

Yuri waits 5 minutes before he pushes open Victor's door and finds him standing there staring blankly at the computer screen. Yuri closes the door behind him. He stands behind Victor and wraps his arms around him without a word. Victor can feel every line of his body, he craves his warmth.

They lose track of time, "Yuri," Victor turns around facing him, "can I trust you?"

"Yes," he lies, a sharp twinge of pain runs through him, he is surprised by how raw that feels lying to Victor, he purses his lips and nods, "you can tell me anything." He presses his forehead against Victor's and strokes his silvery hair.

"There was a project that Yakov started and I completed, but we decided to not let it be known to the world, in case it falls into the wrong hands..." Victor's forehead is still pressed against Yuri, "the wrong people found out, and Yakov died because of it." His blue-green eyes downcast.

Yuri wraps his arms around him, "go on."

"We found a way to manipulate genes, _freely_ ," he blinks, his long eyelashes the same color as his hair flutter.

Yuri's eyes widen behind the blue framed glasses.

Noticing his shock, "yes, this is exactly what it sounds like, "we figured out a way to change genes to avoid disease like cancer, to select for favorable traits such as intelligence..."

"I had always known you are brilliant, but this..." Yuri trembles a little, thousands of thoughts run through his mind. No wonder the organization is after this...this means designer babies are possible, to select for intellect, physical strength, to make the perfect soldier...he wonders what his next instruction is going to be. To kill Victor? To recruit him? To capture him and to hand him over to the organization. He imagines the small room behind the exclusive club named Eternal, the heart of the organization in a soundproof back room where his master held captives in the past. He remembers the screams, his stomach turns a little. He remembers the sickening sound of fingernails that he pulled off while his master watched. T _hat man I once tortured was a piece of filth who sold under aged children,_ he reminds himself, but that piece of shit of a human being can still feel pain. It frightens him each time he kills it becomes easier. Then he thinks of his brother Yurio, like a ray of golden light that saved him from losing his humanity, some he would do anything to protect. And Victor, what is Victor to him...

"Yakov said there is an organization after Delta, the virus we use to make the gene manipulation possible," Victor's brows furl in pain, "they killed him, and my parents too..."

Yuri sees through his anger, sadness and hatred for the organization. _And you are staring right into the heart of it...I am the next leader..._ his heart feels like one thousand pounds of lead. _I wonder if he will ever forgive me if he finds out what I am_. _What he would do to me..._ he remembers these moments where Victor almost kisses him and that he pulls back because if he does he will lose control and betray the master, who is like a father to him, and the organization that picked him up from the slums and gave him a new life. He realizes, Victor is the first person he wants to hold onto.

"Victor, no matter what happens, I am on your side." Not the truth, but not a lie. Yuri decided that he would protect Victor, even if it means he would bargain with the devil himself. Victor grips on his white dress shirt from the back tightly.

Victor nods as they pull apart. "I know why Yakov sent me this, Delta is a double edged sword. We have work to do."

Yuri knows exactly what he is referring to, to manipulate genes freely...to also select against disease, Delta may be answer to the virus currently wrecking havoc in the world...

"I'll be back with coffee..." Yuri exits the room. His phone vibrates inside his pocket.

**Status?** His master sends a single word.

**He is just beginning to tell me about Delta, information is incomplete. I have earned his trust. Need more time.** He writes back. Not the truth, but not a lie. His heart races, this is the first time he ever lied to the master. The expert manipulator that taught him how to lie, torture, and deceive. _Can I beat him at his own game? I need to stall for more time_

**Come to the Eternal.** Chills run down Yuri's spine making every hair on his body stand.

* * *

Chaos falls outside, within weeks the streets are filled with people wearing various colored facial masks. Grocery stores are mostly empty, as people scramble to stash food and water supplies in their houses. There is a stream of ambulances pulling into the hospital filled with workers in full body suits. There is new tension in the air. The death counts from the virus is skyrocketing...

_We are neurosurgeons for fucks sake why do they make us run around doing this..._ Phichit thinks to himself, before the most grueling part of medical training he never use to swear. Residency is the final stage of medical training that can transform some of the most innocent, curious, bright eyed bushy tailed medical students to _well_... Phichit. _Life gets better,_ the full fledged doctors say as they chuckle looking at the residents high on caffeine running around doing their scut work and reminisce how much worse they had it in their residency days. The term "residency" came from the fact that historically budding doctors literally reside in the hospital.

Phichit's mint green scrubs feels hot under the full body suit. At least I don't have to see JJ walking around in scrubs that a little small to show off his muscles and talk to nurses about how he goes to the gym after work and the recipes for his goddamned amateur smoothies. _Douchebag._

The emergency department is packed with people in isolation.

His pager goes off again, he wants to throw it across the room and smash it into smithereens. He grabs the next phone and dials the number. "Neurosurgery," he snaps reflexively. "I mean Phichit speaking, " he corrects himself because all members of the hospital are now cross covering. "Give her more fluids, then...call the medicine resident." He smashes the phone down. He has been drilling holes in skulls for too long. He saved children's lives from massive brain tumors, but he no longer remembers how to manage grandma's diabetes.

"He is starting to have neurological symptoms," he hears the nurse next to him speak with the emergency department doctor. The doctor, a short and fat man with salt and pepper beard with his stomach bulge from the isolation suit sigh. "Call the family, this is another case of the virus." Wearily he continues, "ask if they want the breathing machine or go straight to the morphine drip..." he's done this more than enough times.

_Morphine drip..._ Phichit thinks, that's what he would choose if he himself becomes infected. Morphine can keep a person comfortable in those last few moments. It allows people pass with some more dignity. It makes people forget the fact that it is difficult to breathe. Over the past three weeks he has seen too many pale yellow faces with brown crusty blood running from the eyes, mouth and the ears being zipped up into body bags. The morgue is getting full.

Around him the beeping of heart monitors out of sync is muffled by the noise of an outcry from a family member. He turns around and sees JJ comforting the woman who appears inconsolable by putting an arm on her shoulder. Phichit walks in the opposite direction. He looks down at his watch. 8 pm, his shift is over. JJ does not seem like he is going anywhere. A tinge of annoyance runs through him, JJ is like the perfect resident. Bright, efficient, empathetic and kind to the families...his patients send him presents, he politely turns down advances from female patients. He is unlike the stereotypical surgery resident like himself, with the reputation of being hard asses...JJ was the perfect medical student, he had the grades to go to any specialty. He initially choose anesthesiology but changed his mind one year later after he met Celestino, their surgery chief.

Phichit reflects back on his medical school days, when his classmates are picking specialties that fit their personalities. Nice people become pediatricians, pediatricians who are not nice end up working in pediatric intensive care units pulling kids back from the brink of death. People who hates people end up in the dark, reading X rays or CT scans as a radiologist. The people with the best grades end up in fancy offices cutting off people's misbehaving moles and telling patients not to shower more than once per day because that dries out the skin and to put on sunscreen. The other people with the best grades and possibly insane end up like himself. JJ is an anomaly, he has the 'sunny personality' of a pediatrician and ended up a surgeon. Phichit wonders, _since when did I start stereotyping...I didn't know I can be this jaded._

"15 more staff members just quit," the nurse informs the emergency department doctor who shakes his head. Phichit speeds up his pace, turning around one more time eyeing JJ still with the family member.

* * *

The Eternal, the elusive club has a different energy to it. They have been playing more classical music recently.

Yuri pulls the double doors as the familiar sound of Dvorak's _New World Symphony_ plays. Inside the club a black chandelier with thousands of crystals reflect the violet light.

On the inside it seems to be business as usual despite the chaos outside. Clients speak in low voices to each other while drinks are served by beautiful attendants.

Yuri nods at Sara, who is wearing a beautiful white form fitting dress and holding a martini on a platter, her violet eyes the same shade as the dark violet lights. The roof is arched like the inside of a planetarium, on the deep roof are tiny lights forming constellations. The tables are circular, but not perfect engraved on them veins like the lily pad, with intricate glass water lilies on top.

He walks past clients whose faces are obscured by the violet light raising the glass, "to the new world." Their low voice like rumbling thunder.

He pushes the black double doors at the back of the club into the kitchen. It is surprisingly quiet.

He walks past another set of double doors and enters the cave like arena named the Box where the members of the organization train to fight. He did not see Guang Hong or Chris there. _It's too quiet...it feels wrong._

He makes a left down a dark hallway where the master's office is and knocks the door.

No one answers, _where could they be..._ he pushes the door open. His desk lamp is on, reflecting eerie light onto his mahogany desk. Yuri opens his drawer, he knows he keeps a gun in there. He tucks it at his waist.

_Victor..._

He turns around and begins to run.

The streets are dirty, there are abandoned face masks everywhere. Cars are hardly moving. "Move it you asshole!" Someone honks his car and the car in front of him setting off a chain reaction of other cars honking raucously.

People wearing multi colored masks walk in hurried steps avoiding the gaze of others. A man clutched his chest and takes off his mask as he coughs and spits onto the side of the streets, the others walking gives him dirty looks.

"Get out of here," two teenagers over 6 felt tall wearing masks shoved him hard and he falls onto the ground on the banks of dirty snow. They begin to kick him in the stomach, he groans in pain.

Somewhere the sound of glass smashing overpowers the chaos from the honking cars. Some people are already leaving the city.

Yuri continues to run.

Breathing hard, he presses the elevator button to the 56th floor, his heart almost leaping out of his chest, cold sweat pastes his white dress shirt to his body. He prepares his gun. His years of assassin's intuition tells him something is wrong.

The double doors opens to the silver plaque with _Nikiforov Lab_ engraved on it and a set of double doors. He hears the sound of a bullet shell drop, fired from a gun with a silencer followed by a scream that sounds...too familiar. Mila.

He enters the lab through the back door down the hall sometimes Victor uses when the vultures from the media are harassing him. His walk is silent as a cat.

He feels nauseous, even though killing and death is nothing new to him, _but these people...Victor calls them his family._

The lab is a mess, glass shattered on the floor along with papers as if the lab had been turned upside down.

His heart sinks as he walks towards a body, sprawled face down across the floor in a pool of blood, his hair cut short, his fingertips white. All Yuri could remember is his good natured smile. It's too late... _Georgi...I am so sorry._ His eyes stinging. Yuri doesn't remember how to cry anymore. _Tears are for the weak_ , his master taught him. _So is love._

They are here, Yuri can hear his own heart pulsating in his ears. The organization. He begins to count with each inhale and exhale to even his breathes and calm his mind despite the sick feeling in his stomach. He remembers Victor's smile, the feeling of his forehead pressed against his own, his soft scent, and the feeling of his lips that night when Yuri kissed him when he was asleep at his desk. He remembers that cold February night when they had warm wine and watched the stars together and that he pretended he cannot dance.

Then Yuri hears the footsteps of several black clad figures with their faces covered surround him. And he hears the cold stoic voice of the master himself.

_One, two, three, inhale, pause,_ he commands his breath, o _ne two three exhale..._ he puts on a neutral expression and nods.

"Well done, Yuri," chills run down Victor's spine as he overhears the cold voice from the next room. _What does this mean.._. _Yuri was after the Delta the whole time?_ His mind races in disbelief, all those moments of softness, of almost kisses, of warmth and comfort, it's all...pretence. His heart races, he could hardly breathe, his chest heavy, he could hardly move. He feels like life itself is draining out of him. Those shy but beautiful eyes, sparkling as they watched the stars together, those lean but strong shoulders that he cried on are all but an illusion. "Capture him, and come back to the headquarters, and I will announce you as the next leader."

"Yes master."

"The rest of you search every inch of this area," that cold voice finishes. And footsteps fade.

Then Yuri opens the door, facing him.

_The most dangerous place can also be the safest place..._

"Victor," Yuri's face ashen as he whispers his name and steps forward, a gun in his hand. _No, this isn't what it looks like._ He pulled out the gun because he heard the footsteps of the others in the organization. He pulled it out to protect the man in front of him.

"So none of this is real," his blue green eyes glistening, "you deceived me, you killed the people that I called family. I trusted you..."

There is nothing else he can think of than this, Yuri leans forward and kisses him. Not a soft kiss, but fierce, he can taste the blood on his lips. _But this...is real..._ Victor kisses him back as fierce and as deep, his mind protesting, but his heart won't listen.

Victor bites into his own lip, tasting metallic blood and suddenly he pulls back and pushes Yuri with full force, _"From this day on,"_ his voice as calm as the moment before the storm, " _You and I are enemies._ " _Goodbye._

Then Yuri feels the burning on his side and realized the places Victor's bullet sheared through. He has a high tolerance for pain from his past but the physical pain is nothing compared to the ripping pain deep in his chest, taking his breath away, taking the lingering warmth of Victor's body away. Warmness soak through his shirt down his side and drips onto the ground, like all the vivid colors that he found in his monochrome world drain away. He wanted to scream, _Victor, I didn't do it, I didn't kill Mila or Georgi,_ but no sound would come out of his mouth. _What is the point, he would not listen anyways. I want to leave the organization. I don't want to be the Mantis anymore. I only want to stay with you. For you I would give anything..._ that's when he realizes.

_Victor, I love you._

* * *

Without turning around Victor vanishes, he runs into his office and opens his drawer and pulls out the two photographs of his families who are now gone, one with Mila and Yakov, the other of himself on Christmas with his parents. He picks up his father's wedding band with 'Vitya & Yulia' engraved inside and places it into his pocket. He takes off his dress shirt and puts on a plain grey sweater and a black hat. He takes a stack of yellow face masks to blend in with people out in the street and closes the door of his lab, his pride and his home.

In his mind he decided to pack away his emotions, especially those for Yuri into a imaginary box and toss that box at the bottom of his imaginary ocean. He decided to leave the grieving for later. For now there is work to be done and he knows just the place to do it. _The most dangerous place is also the safest place..._

He decided to become numb.

Because the last hope lies in his hands alone.

* * *

Greetings,

Tidbits about the story,

There is a song by Lennie Gallant named "pieces of you", go listen to it, it's pretty, plus it's by a Canadian artist. (I am Canadian currently living in the US).

Writing this chapter actually hurts.

I know I put our boys through a lot...but I do like hope & happy endings...

If you are from a certain profession, I snuck in some inside jokes in this chapter ;) I don't mean to stereotype, but sometimes there are nuggets of truths within stereotypes.

Once again, thank you for staying with me!

xoxo

Antares


	7. Stay Close to Me

Phichit climbs out of his car parked by the snow banks of the cabin, a heavy black bag across his shoulders, he locks the car and knocks hastily.

"I stopped the bleeding, no thanks to you," a green pair of eyes glare at him, a few blonde locks fly in his face as a gush of wind passes through the open door of the cabin. "You drive like a grandpa."

"This is exactly what you say to someone who you called over to help," Phichit is about to ruffle his hair, Yurio slaps his hands away. _He would actually look like he could be a fairy if it weren't for the attitude and the teenage angst._ Phichit sighs, "and I was gathering supplies." He jumped through the broken window of an abandoned urgent care clinic and thankfully they had everything he was looking for.

"Stupid Nikiforov, my brother is all fucked up because of him, if I get my hands on him..."Yurio clutches his fist inside the pocket of his tiger sweater. "I'll rip him a new-"

"Language," Phichit removes his long black coat and hangs it onto the back of a wooden chair. The cabin is the one place that didn't change since the virus took over the world. The organization owns the cabin, sometimes Chris takes targets here to do _business_ , Phichit does not want to know what kind of business. The wooden house hidden in the mountains appears small from the outside but on the inside the roof lined by wooden logs are high, creating the illusion of space. The fireplace looks radiant with warm with tongues of flames licking the logs from all different sides. Phichit takes a deep breath, the smell of wood in this cabin comforting, like an oasis from the rest of the world.

Yuri appears fast asleep on his stomach. There are blood soaked towels on the floor. Phichit watches his heavily inked back rise and fall he gazes at the site of the wound and let's out a sign of relief. He wonders what the tattoos mean.

"So?" Yurio takes two steps closer.

"It isn't deep," Phichit pulls out a pair of blue gloves to examine the gash on Yuri's side already coated with dark red crushing blood. The surrounding area blue and purple, he lightly touches the bruise on his ribs on the left side, Yuri's eyebrows furl and slowly he opens his eyes. "Two of his ribs are broken, but he is lucky because broken ribs could easily have punctured his lung. Grab a bucket, Yurio." He pulls out a giant plastic container filled with saline and punctures holes on the plastic top with a large bore needle.

Yuri opens his eyes, the stabbing pain on his side sharp as he takes a deep inhale. His sharp senses return. And realizes Phichit is about to stitch him up. "Thanks Phichit." He mutters from his dry lips. And watch as Phichit injects bubbles into the vial of lidocaine and draws it into a syringe.

"Any time," Phichit puts the filled syringe down on the tray at the bedside table. Even though they are friends, there is an unspoken agreement to not ask questions about each other's missions. Sometimes knowing less is better. Phichit joined the organization later than Yuri, they used to train in combat together and Yuri always won. Then Yuri kept on fighting while Phichit was sent to medical school to become a neurosurgeon. He is the one person in the organization whom Yuri considers a friend. "This is the worst part," Phichit picks up the syringe and injects into the gash in Yuri's side."

Yuri did not flinch, he takes a deep inhale on the pillow and realizes it's Victor's scent. He suddenly remembers that night when he held Victor as he falls asleep mourning his mentor Yakov. He turns his head the other way. His side burns from where Phichit injects the lidocaine to make him feel numb. His chest hurts. Victor's words hurts more than any physical wounds he had ever experienced. _From this day on...You and I are enemies._

"Shine the light right here," Phichit gestures for Yurio to bring the floor lamp with a flexible neck next to the bed. "I am going to wash your wounds. He picks up the giant plastic container filled with saline and pours it into his wound. Dark blood clots fall into the bucket below. "You are lucky Yuri, one of your lung could have collapsed, but there is no sign of the bullet, all you need is stitches."

He hears Yurio's grumble. "Good thing that bookworm has terrible aim."

Fifteen minutes passed, Yurio watches Phichit work with his mouth slightly open. Yurio is fascinated by the way Phichit's hand flies throwing a row of perfect stitches in the row of yellowish layer under the skin, and his perfect knots.

Phichit finally wipes the row of perfect stitches with a wet gauze and tosses it into the bucket.

27 stitches.

"Yurio," Phichit takes off his gloves, "it's your job, to make sure he does not do anything stupid for the next week, no lifting." He continues sternly. "It's going to take 2 months for rib fractures to fully heal, if you fuck this up Yuri, and I have to fix my beautiful row of stitches I will be very angry." He flashes his grumpy neurosurgeon side at Yuri momentarily.

Yuri flashes a forced smile, "thanks, I owe you lots of...katsudon." He remembers they way Phichit's eyes light up each time he makes katsudon from the kitchen of the Eternal.

"Yes you do, but not this week," Phichit begins to packs the bag filled with medical supplies. I _could really use an energy drink,_ his head hurts from the caffeine withdrawal.

As soon as Yurio hears the door shut as Phichit leaves, he pulls a chair and sits by the top of the bed, he props his chin up with his elbow. "I know exactly what is going on between you and Nikiforov."

Yuri casts him a sideways glance, he did not even try to deny or pretend, "my skills must be getting rusty." He is the best mercenary in the organization. He has the ability to become anyone. He is a professional liar.

"I can read you, big brother," his blows air upwards to move the strand of blonde hair that is falling in front of his eyes out of the way. "The way you say his name when you sleep. You actually look... _happy_...after you come home every day."

Yuri turns around and sits up on the bed with his pillow behind his back. He ruffles through Yurio's hair. Yurio glares at him but does not stop him. He is the only one that Yurio allows to do that. Yurio can see his brother is breaking on the inside. He leans forward and gently pulls Yuri into a hug without any words.

_I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't here, Yurio._ He feels a warm tide wash over him, as he holds his sworn brother. He is like a fierce golden beacon of hope.

"I-I won't make fun of you if you cry right now, I can pretend I didn't see anything." Yurio says next to his ear.

_Tears are for the weak._ His master taught him. _So is love._ The truth is Yuri doesn't know how to cry. His tears stopped since his master picked him up from the streets where he ran away from yet another abusive foster family. He's seen plenty of people cry before, people he tortured in the past, and Yurio when they first met, and _Victor...he looks beautiful when he cries..._ no sound escapes through Yuri's mouth, instead he pulls his brother a little tighter. _What if the master sends more mercenaries after him...what if he will torture him..._ pain stabs him from the inside like thousands of knives.

"I can tell," Yurio continues, "you still give a shit about Nikiforov," Yurio pulls away. "Even though I want to kick his ass for what he did to you, I know what you are going to do if I let you out of my sight."

Yurio reads his mind.

Yuri sighs and he didn't know he could smile still at this moment and time but he does, "I am that transparent huh?"

Yurio smirks, "you are not, I am getting good at reading people, that's all."

Yuri feels a wave of love for his brother, he recalls for a second the day he found Yurio on the streets and those piercing green eyes of a soldier, and his tiny fists clinging onto him, not letting him go. _I am so glad that I found you..._

"Fine, I am going to find your precious Victor and watch over him in your place," Yurio stands up, "and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Yuri recalls he actually never told Victor Yurio's name, or that his fifteen year old tomcat brother is in fact...Russian.

* * *

Yuri waits until Yurio is fast asleep on the couch and steps into the shower, careful to not let his left side with the stitches becomes exposed to water. The sterile little white strips that Phichit neatly applied appear like a snake sprawling on his side.

He rinses off the blood and the sweat from the day before. He feels dirty again, like a monster. His insides hurt, but he still doesn't know how to cry. He lifts his chin and lets the water run down his face, hoping that it would wash away all of the blood from the people he killed from his body. Hoping somehow tears would fall, but no tears do.

_Victor..._ he steps out of the shower, the green bathrobe Victor once wore hang behind the door. He pulls it around him, holds it tightly against his own naked body, inhaling the last hint of Victor's scent while trying to forget how much he wants him.

_Love is for the weak._ He hears his master's voice haunting him.

Yuri falls onto his knees and slowly slides down the wooden door, it hurts to move, hurts to breathe. He is shattering into one thousand little pieces. Next to his hand on the bathroom floor he finds a piece of silvery hair.

Still Yuri is unable to cry. He pants as he tightens his fists and presses his forehead against the hard wooden door.

* * *

"I made you pancakes," Yuri wakes up to his brother's excited voice, "but I ate most of it."

_Of course._ Yuri actually smiles.

He gazes down at the the plate at the two pancakes with chunks of the top missing.

"They are a little burnt, but suck it up, will you?" Yurio sits down next to him and hands the him the syrup.

"Tastes good," Yuri tries to mask the burnt taste with the syrup. He pictures Yurio picking the burnt parts off then sucking on his index finger because the pancake is still hot.

"Right?" Yurio flashes a brilliant smile, "On my first try."

_I am glad you didn't set the cabin on fire,_ Yuri thinks to himself.

Yurio picks up his metal studded backpack, and opens the drawer by the bed, there are more than fifty pocket knives inside of different size. He tucks one inside his pants pocket and another inside his backpack.

He walks over to the door and begins to knock on the wooden tiles, suddenly the sound changes, "aha". He loosens that wooden plank with a knife and inside there is a lever. He pulls on it and suddenly the wall with the fireplace creaks open revealing racks filled with different kinds of weapons. "That's what I am talking about." Like the organization, the cabin too is full of secrets. Yurio glances at the weapons before him. There is a baseball bat even. _I would choose that one if this was a stupid zombie movie._

Except for this is reality.

He tucks a gun into his waist and several cases of bullets into his backpack.

"Yurio," Yuri protests, "it's too dangerous." He knows once Yurio decides though he will not changes his mind.

Yurio rolls his eyes, puts on Yuri's aviator sunglasses and a turquoise N95 respirator, and shuts the door.

* * *

Victor feels numb, his yellow face mask causing an itch. He walks past the empty streets with broken glass windows, the February wind makes the parts of his face that is not covered raw. He thinks about taking the mask off. _Is it really that bad to take off the mask, catch the virus and die?_ He wonders. It would be quick. Modern medicine often though makes people die slowly and painfully, with tubes and lines from every limb and out of every orifice.

_No._

He has too many questions and no answers, about the organization, his parents, Yakov and _him...Yuri._..he decided to pack all memories of Yuri into an imaginary box and throw that box into the depth of an imaginary ocean in his mind. He wishes there is a knife that can cut out all memories of Yuri from his mind. He wishes they had never met.

_Yuri, I loved you._ He commands himself to stop and bury those memories trying to resurface from that imaginary ocean and trying to drag him by the feet to drown. Despite the fact he hates guns, he does have immaculate aim, probably from all those times Yakov dragged him to the shooting range. It's Yakov's past time.

_If I loved you any less, I would have shot you in the heart or in the head._ He grips onto the strap of his grey duffle bag hard, Yakov's favorite gun is tucked inside his long blue coat, as if part of his beloved mentor is still with him, protecting him. _One thing I know how to do is to aim a gun..._

In the distance he hears a gun shot and glass smashing, the streets are now devoid of cars. Most people have fled the city. There are trash on the side of the streets, stray dogs picking through them. Some street lights still work, but most of the shops are already deserted. The night is about to fall. He walks soundless with uneven steps to try not to step on glass.

A block in front of him he sees a group of people bundled up in winter coats and face masks scream at each other. "Hand over the antibiotics! Or I'll shoot!" Then sounds of gunshots reverberate eerily throughout the empty city. Victor hears the sound of broken glass followed by the sound of a body falling into the snow.

Victor sighs. The disease that is destroying the world is a virus. Antibiotics isn't going to do anything to a virus, but people are now desperate and willing to kill for it. People are willing to kill for anything, even a small glimmer of hope.

Humanity's last hope may rest in his hands. Even though project Delta, the breakthrough he and Yakov decided to bury was from a long time ago and he is not certain that it will in fact fight the new virus, he knows he has to try. _I have to try to make this right._

"Hey kid," Victor hear's a man's deep voice, "what have you got in your backpack." There is a shorter figure walking by the group of five men.

"None of your fucking business," a teenager's voice replies.

"What did you say," the thick necked man swings a fist at the boy under the black hood with aviator sunglasses making his sunglasses fall onto the snow.

Victor hides behind a red brick building.

He hears the boy gasp as another man hits him on the back of the head. The first man picks him up by his face and brings his ugly face with a big gap between the front tooth and grins and sprays the boy with old hair up to his chin with his stinking breath "He is pretty." The boy tries to kick him but 2 men pins his arms and legs from behind.

"Let's go have some fun with him," they laugh, like a pack of wolves.

Victor shudders.

Suddenly the sound of a gun fires off, startling a stray cat eating the contents of a garbage can nearby, the man drops the teenage boy's face and screams and clutches his right ear but only finding blood on his hands, his eyes almost pops out of their sockets when he finds part of his right ear on the ground 10 feet away staining the snow.

_Disgusting._

Victor steps out of the shadows, "that was a warning. I can aim for other parts too. And I do not miss," his voice icy. Slowly he raises his gun up, pausing at the level of that man's crotch for one second before pointing it at his forehead. White hot rage burns through him as the ugly part of humanity unfolds right before him. He does not like guns, or blood, but this man, he deserves it.

"Let's get out of here," the men run one after another, leaving the boy on his hands and knees on the ground.

_Victor fucking Nikiforov, nice to meet you._ Yurio grins in the dark. _Mission accomplished._

He could have easily beaten all five of his attackers and taken their guns. His training would not fail him. But this is necessary, to draw Victor out. He had been watching him for days. _Dr._ Nikiforov is smart, even with Yurio's training, he would still lose him from time to time. _Those fuckers better have not broken my brother's aviators._ He picks it up from the snow, happy to find they are still intact. _It seems like Victor does not need our protection after all._

Victor holds out a hand to the boy on the ground and pulls him up, "let's get out of here."

Yurio's green eyes locks onto the ground, and he nods. Victor puts a protective hand on his shoulder.

* * *

This is not the first time Yurio slept under a bridge, before he met Yuri he did also, except the difference is this is February and when he slept under a bridge as a child in South America where he was kidnapped and sold to the human trafficker, the rats over there are much bigger. There is a small room where security officer used to sit under this bridge. It has enough floor space for two people to lie down. Two old chairs that are falling apart take up most of the space. On the desk, someone was in the middle of a game of solitaire.

"What's your name?" Victor asks, as he takes off his yellow face mask, he is sick of wearing it.

"Does it matter? We are all going to be dead soon anyways," Yurio takes off the hood of his tiger sweatshirt and his blue respirator.

"Of course it does, I'm Victor," the silver haired man sits cross legged next to him and begin to light a tiny stove people take on camping trips to begin heating water, and he pulls out two cup noodles from the drawer.

_Your are not going to like this, Dr. Nikiforov,_ "Fine, _Yuri_ Plisetsky," he watches as Victor winces when he says his first name. _Serves you right for what you did to my brother._ He sticks his tongue out in his mind.

"Russian."

"My parents were, they are dead."

"Can I call you... _Yurachka_?" Yuri watches pain in those blue-green eyes, saying the name Yuri hurts him. _How clever, using the Russian version so you don't have to say his name every time you look at me._

"Whatever. Suit yourself."

* * *

Two weeks passes by, they do not stay in the same location for long. Whenever his intuition tells him that they are being watched, Yurio tells Victor to move. Sometimes in the middle of the night Yurio will put on the silencer of his gun and stalk their stalkers until they feel his wrath and give up. He's shot people in the leg and occasionally on the arm, but he never killed. _Yuri doesn't let me kill..._ He remembers the nightmares Yuri used to have, he would scream in his sleep, and run to the bathroom to throw up and wash his hands for an hour until they are red and raw. _Yuri doesn't want me to live through that._

So far their stalkers seem amateur, hunting down people for supplies or weapons, not coming from the organization.

Yurio and Victor take turns sleeping and being on watch. Victor scouts out places where electricity still works. He does not speak much. He is on his laptop most of the time. The city seems dead.

They hear occasional shouting and gunshots in the distance. The streets are covered with trash and broken glass and parts of cars. Yurio walks into a pharmacy, there are pills scattered on the ground. He looks through the racks that are almost empty.

_Found it,_ he picks up a tube of toothpaste, _even if the world is ending I still want to be clean._ He shudders as a flashback of that disgusting man whose ear ended up on the ground spraying his face with stinking breath. He picks up a can of Spam that nobody seemed to notice. _I wonder what Yuri is doing._

* * *

"Yurachka, I need to go somewhere," Victor closes his laptop and rubs his eyes, his heart pounding. _I figured it out...Theoretically._ He pictures his lab for a second and feels a sharp shooting pain in his chest. Mila, Georgi...he pictures the blue mug Yuri always uses, how he always brings dark coffee, the picture of Yuri asleep at his desk with his blue glasses beside him. _Stop it,_ he commands his mind.

Yurio crosses his legs and sits next to him.

Victor begins to tuck his laptop into his duffle bag and put on his long blue coat.

"It will be too dangerous, and I don't want you to come with me." He needs to go to a lab. Not his own. He is going to a place that trained him and made him the scientist that he is. Victor holds back the pain of his mentor's death, and suppresses the flashbacks of those happy moments in his graduate student days with Yakov and Mila too. He is going to Yakov's lab.

Yurio glares at him.

He is grateful to have the boy by his side, whose burning desire to live on carries Victor through the darkest nights where he cannot fall asleep and he cannot forget _him...Yurachka, thank you._

"Bullshit," Yurio stomps his feet and leans forward, "I am not leaving -"

"I'll come back for you," Victor leaps for the door.

"Stupid Victor!" _Fuck, tracking him was a pain in the ass._ Even for a trained mercenary had trouble tracking him, _Dr._ Nikiforov is smart after all.

* * *

The University is still the same way he remembers it, he walks past the library with the giant stained glass window. He used to love sitting by the window in the summer and watch the multi coloured light project from the windows to the wooden floor. The campus is deathly quiet.

He walks past the circular lecture hall where he used to sit and listen to Yakov, he was always awake during those lectures. He may be the only one though.

Finally he climbs the stairs of a building made of white granite bricks that are usually covered with vine in the summer time but is now barren in the dead of winter. He pushes open the heavy wooden door. The hallway is just as he remembered, behind the glass case posters with his name on it from the last article he and Yakov published together. He pauses for a second and continues walking.

Suddenly he hears the door behind him creak and several footsteps, chills run down his spine making every hair on his body stand. He realizes he is being followed.

_The organization._

_They are here._

He puts his hands on the handle of Yakov's gun tucked in his coat.

Footsteps.

There are at least five different sets of footstep that he hears.

_Stay calm._

_Stay calm._

He calculates the time that he needs to make it to the other exit, his pursuers are still far. _I need twenty seconds._

Suddenly the door at the end of the hall burst open, revealing six people whose faces are covered by black masks pointing their guns at him.

_I'm too late...I am glad I didn't drag Yurachka into this._ He thinks of the boy with golden hair and fierce forest green eyes and the fierce will to live on.

Victor closes his eyes as bullets are about to rain on him. He holds his breath.

Suddenly a flash of light and a black clad figure leaps into the air in front of him. With lightning speed, his sword dances in a graceful arc in the air, 5 bullets are deflected from his shiny blade, he blocks the 6th with his body.

_Yuri..._ Victor slowly opens his eyes, his heart about to leap out of his chest. He knows this silhouette and those lean yet strong shoulders. A mixture of emotions course through him. From white hot rage from the lies Yuri told to burning hatred for the organization, everything that Yuri stands for, to emptiness of the days they spent apart, to a glimmer of secret hope, he remembers the feeling of Yuri's lips pressed hard against his own. _What if...that was real..._

Yuri grabs his arm roughly and runs down the hall. They push past the exit and bolts the door shut.

"Yuri, what do you want from me," Victor looks tired, his shoulders slumped over from the sadness of the deaths of those closest to him.

"I want you to stay close to me!" Sadness fills those beautiful brown eyes, "and never leave..." he whispers his features soften as he falls onto one knee, warm blood soaking his back. His vision begins to falter. He knows this time he needs more than just stitches to put back together. A flash of Phichit's disapproving face passes by his mind for a split second. He feels lightheaded and the last thing he remembers is Victor catching his fall.

* * *

"Keep him awake," the next thing Yuri remembers is his friend Phichit's voice, he wakes up inside the back of Phichit's old grey car.

"Yuri," Victor shakes him, "Stay with me."

Phichit steps onto the gas pedal, "hang in tight, this ride will be bumpy, hold pressure on his back. "We can't take him to the regular hospital, that area is too close to the chip in his neck, one wrong move and he could die...it's a long story." Then he wonders if hospitals are even open. Since the virus spreading rampantly, more and more people left the city, most hospitals lie abandoned. He bites his lip. _I will not be able to do this alone..._ he realizes. He pulls out his phone and hands it to Victor. "I need you to dial a number for me." He bites his bottom lip and sighs. I can't believe I have to do this..."his name is JJ."

"I don't see it," Victor replies as he scrolls through his contacts, there aren't many, mostly doctors.

_Oh shit. This is embarrassing._

"Um...look under the letter B," Phichit sighs. They have been at each other's throats since 6 years ago when they first met. They are the pride of the program, meticulous, and efficient. Together, they are the best neurosurgery trainees the program had in years," His last name is Leroy."

"Got it," Victor hits the dial button next to the name _'Brown-noser Leroy'._

This is the first time Phichit is happy to hear JJ's voice.

"You alright?" JJ asks.

"Yea, what about you?" Phichit is genuine this time.

"Still alive."

"Listen, JJ, I need your help..." Phichit goes on. He was surprised at the end that JJ said yes without hesitation.

* * *

Yuri's head is lying in Victor's lap, Victor takes off his grey sweater and presses it against Yuri's back, it becomes soaked in his warm red blood.

Yuri grimaces.

"Victor, do something," There is fear in Phichit's voice, as if Yuri falls asleep now he will never wake up again.

Without hesitation, Victor leans down and kisses Yuri on the lips. He interlaces his hands in Yuri's hand presses against his heart. He wipes away the sweat on Yuri's forehead. "Yuri, stay with me."

"Victor," Yuri mutters as he raises his other arm to touch his face, "you lost weight..."

"Shh-," Victor strokes his pale face.

"I'm sorry," Yuri mutters, "I kept those secrets..." his breathes faster, "I am sorry that I am a liar-."

"Shh-," Victor strokes his face, "I will give you one chance," his blue-green eyes hard, "after all of this is over, you will speak, and I will listen." He wanted to tell him that he forgives him, but that would be a lie. Victor is sick of lies. But Yuri just laid his life before him.

The corners of Yuri's lips turns up into a weak smile and he reaches up to lightly touch Victor's face. Yuri misses those ocean colored eyes more than anything.

Their trip on the road seems to go on forever.

* * *

"Do you love him?" Phichit asks.

"More than anything in the world." Victor says without hesitation. He traces his fingers along Yuri's cheeks, along his lips, he runs through his dark hair. _Stay close to me..._ he presses his face against Yuri's chest listening to his heart beats. _Please please do not stop beating..._

Then he hears Phichit sniffle from the driver's seat. "I'm sorry -" he wipes his eyes. "It's- so unlike me." He thinks he is jaded from years of medical training, there are emotions that he thought he tucked away deep inside. But the love he is witnessing before his eyes makes his tears come life of their own. He wonders if someday he will meet someone who will love him the same way. He would be the happiest person in the world.

* * *

There is nobody in the hospital, but fortunately the back up electricity generator is still working.

Phichit had never operated without the assistance of his nurses and operating room technician before. He develops a new level of appreciation for them. _After all this is over,_ he decides, _I will buy lunch for my staff when I am a full fledged neurosurgeon on Fridays for the rest of my career._

"You ready," JJ's dark blue eyes meet his from the opposite side of the operating room table where the anesthesiologist works. Before JJ started training in neurosurgery he was training in anesthesiology, doctors who puts patients to sleep and keeps them asleep during surgery. There is a tube in Yuri's throat hooked to a machine to help him breathe. The only sound is the beeping of the monitor to the rhythm of Yuri's heart. JJ adjusts several knobs to make sure the right dosage of medication enters into Yuri's veins.

"Yes," Phichit's voice is calm. He is alone, the life of his best friend in his hands. There is no one there to hand him any instruments. He takes a deep breath and explores the path of the bullet. It entered close to the chip that everyone in the organization has implanted in his neck. The chip has two main functions, to transmit location, and there is the death button as well. In dire circumstances, it allows the mercenary to end his own life. Phichit's secret fear is the death function being accidentally triggered.

_Amazing._ He gasps as he pulls out the bullet, beside it, a melted and blackened chip. _His chip came loose...and the death function was not activated. Yuri, you have no idea how lucky you are._

He can smell the burnt flesh he is too familiar with as he uses a cautery to stop the bleeding.

He loses sense of time.

"JJ, I need you to gown up," there are certain parts of the operation he cannot perform alone.

"You got it."

* * *

"Vitals are stable," Phichit pulls off his blue sterile gown, "he is going to make it."

JJ flashes one of his signature grins, "of course he is, because we are the ones that operated."

_Still cocky..._ some things never change. For all these years of competing with JJ for surgery cases, Phichit fantasizes about all kinds of horrible things happening to him, like him getting drunk and the dirty video someone captures going viral, him getting scolded by chief Celestino for fingernails that is 1 mm too long, or for sleeping with medical students. _Maybe...JJ isn't so bad after all..._

He smiles to himself and shakes his head as he takes out his phone and deletes "Brown-noser Leroy" and replaces it with simply "JJ". _That was immature of me,_ he chuckles. He is approaching the sterile white hallway of the operating room of the abandoned hospital, then he hears JJ's footsteps.

"So, Chulanot," JJ catches up to him and steps a little closer.

Phichit quickly hides his phone reflexively as he takes a step back, his back is pressed against the wall.

"What are you going to do to thank me?" He smiles showing perfect white teeth leaning closer. "I put my neck on the chopping block and risked my license for you."

Phichit raises an eyebrow and lets out a short laugh, "as if there are enough people alive out there to take our licenses away." _What's up with him,_ he wonders.

JJ laughs back.

Then with pure confidence, JJ gently steps forwards and tips his chin up with two fingers, leans down and presses his lips briefly against his. Today he did not put on his usual obnoxious cologne, _he smells like...the fresh scent of a forest._

_What the fuck._

"You are welcome." JJ's back quickly disappears behind the double door.

Phichit feels heat rising from his face, he presses his hands against his mouth, and he can still feel the warmth of JJ's lips. His heart pounding.

_What the fuck._

He can't remember the last time he went on a date, made out with, or slept with someone. He may have done those things after a drunken night after a long day of being in the operating room. Sometimes medical training does that to people. Life gets put on hold. Medicine is first. Trainees don't have time to have real relationships, so they resort to hooking up and friends with benefits.

Then he realizes he didn't exactly _not_ enjoy that kiss...

Of all people.

It had to be JJ.

_Fuck._

* * *

Hello my readers,

To be honest I was surprised by the ending scene of this chapter, that wasn't planned. The characters did that on their own. I did enjoy transforming Phichit into a foul mouthed jaded neurosurgeon-in-training though...

I wanted this chapter to end this way because last chapter hurts too much.

I love the next chapter, looking forward to polishing it and sharing it with you.

Leave me a comment if you enjoyed this chapter, my twist at the end, or if you want to throw virtual tomatoes at me. I do review everything I read personally, I am not begging for reviews by any means, but I do think writers work hard and pour little bits of themselves into stories and that sometimes a few kind words can make their day, :) that's my two cents. Constructive feedback always welcome!

xoxo,

Antares


	8. Unspoken

Victor sits outside of the operating room in lonely sterile hall with his face in his hands.

"He will be alright," Phichit takes off his trademark black surgeon's cap with a small rabid hamster with red eyes and a Mohawk printed on the back of it. "He will still be out of it from anesthesia for an hour or two." He is still a little distracted with what had happened with JJ moments ago. He wonder is his face is still bright red. He presses a hand to his cheek. _Ok good, I don't look like I just had too many drinks._

Victor's face lights up the entire hallway, Phichit notices a glimmer in his blue-green eyes. He can finally breathe. Those three hours feels like eternity, as if he is trapped in a vacuum with air and life slowly being drained from his lungs.

"But I forbid you from disturbing my patient," Phichit adds while fixing his hair, a little ruffled from the cap, his feisty raging doctor-in-training comes out.

 _Yurachka.._."I have to go," Victor says, "there is someone I have to go back for -" He thinks of the boy whose actual name he cannot speak out loud because every time he does he feels like being ripped in pieces from inside. _I can't leave him there._

While he is in mid sentence the double doors bursts open, revealing a teenager in a faux leather coat with leopard prints on both sides. His chin length hair wild from running.

"Nikiforov," Yurio leaps at Victor and grabs him by the collar of his grey shirt and growls, "if something happened to my brother, I will fucking kill you!"

Victor's eyes widen, surprised by the strength of his grip. _Brother? Wait...Yurachka is Yuri's brother..._ Victor's fast instincts tell him to move as he dodges a punch. The fiery boy launched for him. He cannot help but feel a sign of relief that Yurachka is alright. He wants to hug him and punch him at the same time. _I wonder how many more secrets Yuri kept from me._

"Stop, Yurio!" Phichit wraps one arm around Yurio's shoulders peeling him off Victor, "Your brother is going to be fine!" Yurio's legs still kicking in midair. _That would hurt...he is getting strong..._ it took all of Phichit's strength to stop him. Or is it I am rusty from all these years of being lectured by the master about protecting my hands and not keeping up with combat.

Yurio dashes through the hall and into the operating room, leaving the rusty door hinge swinging behind him.

"He is too clever..." Phichit is still mildly out of breath from prying Yurio off Victor.

 _How did Phichit show up at the right time outside of Yakov's lab?_ Victor wonders.

"Yurio set an alarm triggered by opening the door of the cabin where I locked Yuri inside so he can recover, " Phichit continues, seeing Victor's guilty look, "yes, I did all those flawless 27 stitches, the wound wasn't deep." He adds. "He knows Yuri will look for you, he anticipated it all along."

 _Oh._ Victor recalls the pride in Yuri's voice when he speaks of his sworn brother. _Yurio is stronger and smarter than he had anticipated, he didn't need my protection after all._

"He is a rising star in the organization, no doubt he will be initiated soon." Then Phichit suddenly changes the topic, "as you can imagine he was livid when the alarm went off, I followed Yuri."

* * *

Yuri opens his eyes, someone is breathing on his hand. He raises his neck, a sharp pain runs down his spine. He lightly touched his neck where the chip implanted as he was initiated into the organization used to be and finds only a piece of dressing. His heart races. Does this mean...

The chip in his neck is gone. Only amongst the highest ranks of the organization will have the chip that can transmit information and contains the power for its carrier to end his own life in dire situations. Only those with Names can be initiated, and he does have the reputation of being one of the deadliest assassins. His name is the Mantis. _Was._

The bullet burnt the chip.

He is free.

Yurio is asleep on his hospital bed near his hand, one of his hands clasp Yuri's wrist. Even asleep, he is still protecting his brother. _He must have tried to stay awake for most of the night._

Yuri looks up slowly and meets a pair of blue-green eyes. He does not have those blue framed glasses, his hair is slicked back. Yuri feels naked all over again.

This is his first time of meeting Victor as exactly who he is. Unaltered.

"Hey." Yuri's throat feels dry, he whispers. His body aches, his memory seems to return in bits and pieces. Like being in the back of Phichit's old car and when Victor held him and tried to stop him from bleeding, and the big hot drops of tears rolling off those silver eyelashes onto his face and their salty taste.

Yurio is still fast asleep on the chair next to his hospital bed, his clasp on Yuri's wrist tight like the iron claws of a tiger. Victor has a funny feeling for a second that Yurachka is guarding his brother from him.

"Yuri," he whispers his name for the first time in weeks. He couldn't bear to call Yurachka that because it feels like ripping open old scabs. Seeing that Yuri is trapped by his IV and those tiger claws, Victor seems to read his mind. He walks over to the dresser and hands him a paper cup filled with water.

"Thanks," Yuri empties the cup in a few seconds, nothing ever tasted so good. "Victor-" he begins, there are one thousand things to say but he does not know where to begin. He cannot take his eyes off the beautiful man beside him. All of the longing, the gnawing pain of their parting words rushes back at him at once. F _rom this day on, you and I are enemies..._ those words cut deep.

"Yuri, you don't have to explain anything right now," he takes the paper cup, "just rest." He fills the cup again from the jug across the room. "Here." He hands it back to Yuri, his finger brushes past Yuri's sending shivers down his spine.

"I didn't kill Mila or Georgi -" _Is he still angry? Does he still hate me for lying to him?_  He craves everything about him, his scent, his touch, the way their foreheads once pressed together that he can feel his breaths on his cheeks, the way his hair feels. 

Suddenly Victor leans one knee on the hospital bed and pulls Yuri close to him, making Yuri's heart skip a beat. The paper cup silently lands on the ground. He holds Yuri firmly and gently at the same time, carefully not waking up Yurio or come near Yuri's fresh wounds. "I know." Victor presses Yuri's head against his shoulder and runs his fingers through his dark hair. He cannot hold back anymore.

At this moment a warm feeling washes over Yuri, on his left side is his brother, fast asleep and still clinging onto his arm. On his right, someone he is determined to hold onto and to never let go.

Yuri feels loved.

* * *

"For fucks sake, just go get married already-" Phichit exclaimed the next morning. He thinks he is just saying that, but suddenly he gasps and stops in mid sentence when he sees the way those two gaze at each other and have been talking throughout the night.

_They are serious._

Victor twirls his parents' ring around his thumb in his pocket then closes it tightly in his fist. His gaze pauses and stops to meets Yurio's.

Yurio frowns and sighs, "fine," he crosses his arms. He pulls off his black hood off. _I have never seen Yuri this happy before..._ For years the two of them lived together, and Yurio hears his brother toss and turn at night from his nightmares about the people he killed, but since Victor came into his life those nightmares stopped. Sometimes he would catch Yuri smile in his sleep. Yurio remembers that night in the snow, the way Victor protected him against the odds, against five armed men, even though Yurio didn't need protection in the first place...the way he would put someone he doesn't know's life before his own. _Maybe he is worthy after all..._ "I give my brother to you." His green eyes gaze onto the ground, his voice quivering a little. Part of him wants kick and punch Victor like earlier on this day again. He feels lost, as if he is giving a part of himself away. He quickly turns around so nobody can see his face.

Yurio looks...vulnerable, Yuri hasn't seen that look for a long time. A wave of warmth swells inside him, of how strong and brave his brother have gotten. H _e is growing up before my eyes._

The Yurio snaps back to his usual self, "but if you hurt him again," he narrows his eyes and glares at Victor and encircle him like a predator, "I will gut you like a fish."

"I know of a place, it may not be much, but it does feel...timeless." Phichit begins. "And Yurio...you can stay with me tonight."

"Wait for me, don't you dare leave before I come back," Yurio zips his faux leather coat with metal studs on the shoulders with a swift motion, turns around and disappears.

"Be careful," Yuri shouts after him, but he knows once his brother's mind is made up there is no stopping him.

* * *

Yurio walks soundlessly through the abandoned streets filled with trash, he kicks an empty can out of the way. This street used to be crowded with shops and Christmas lights 3 months ago. This place used to be a Christmas market. Now it is nothing but pieces broken glass and graffiti on the wall. He passes by a pharmacy that is robbed clean, the wall has bullet holes on it. Next door an used book shop, some old books with browning pages lie in different direction. He picks one up, with a blonde boy on a planet, next to him a rose. Yurio brushes the dust on the cover _"le petit prince"_. Looks interesting. He tucks the book inside the pocket of his faux leather coat.

He continues to walk in the setting sun dyeing the snow orange, _where is it...aha!_

After the world have gone to shit, money does not seem to matter anymore. The door of the jewelry store is in much better shape compared to any pharmacy. Inside most of the display cases are smashed. The big items are gone.

Yurio catches a glimmer of ruby, he picks up the leopard ring with Ruby eyes, looking smug while he puts it on his thumb. _People are so tasteless_ , he thinks to himself, _they'll take all those tacky rings but not this one... this one is like true art..._

Then he scans the rest of the broken counters, _ugly,_   _too thick,_ he wrinkles his nose, _ugh...why would anyone buy this piece of shit._

Then on the ground he finds a navy box upside down. Inside is a simple golden ring with smooth edge. He picks it up and holds it up towards the setting sun squinting his eyes, surprised at its weight. _This is the one._

Part of him feels strange, it had always been Yuri and him, now that Victor is in the picture, he wonders about his place. Then he remembers how happy Yuri looks when he returns...he throws the ring up in the air and catches it. _Nikiforov, fuck you._

He walks away soundlessly like a cat.

* * *

The abandoned church stands on a lonely hill. Phichit says he goes there when he wants time alone. He would sit on the bench that is still in tact and watch the moonlight shine through the broken roof and through the stained glass windows. Sometimes when he wants peace he would come to this place and drink on his own. He remembers coming to this place in the dead of night when his first patient died on the operating room table and that he had to explain to fifty family members that slowly accumulated on the hospital floor what happened. He came here when the mysterious tall stranger in a mask asked him to join him in an organization that protects the world from the shadows, and if he wanted to live for more. He sat here to try to recount his childhood memories, but he does not recall anything. Until the masked man tells him that he had been looking for him all along to make him become who he is meant to be, and that he is fighting an enemy much larger than himself.

The last rays of the sun paints the sky orange and it shines through the stain glass window casting colourful spots on the ground.

Yuri takes off his glasses and leaves it on the altar covered in layer of dust. He does not need them anymore.

The vows they said out loud are simple.

"Promise me you'll never kill again," Victor's blue-green eyes pierces deeply into his, "and you'll always tell me the truth."

Yuri nods. _Victor, I promise to stay close to you, for today, for tomorrow for eternity, in this lifetime and the next. I promise to love and to cherish you, even if the world crumbles and falls into nothing but ashes. I will stay close to you._

Victor slides his father's ring onto his forth finger. The warmth of Victor's trembling fingers in stark contrast from the gold ring sends shivers up Yuri's spine. The ring fits perfectly as if it is meant to be his. _From this day on, all of me belong to you._

"Promise you'll believe me." Yuri takes off Victor's glove slowly and slides the simple golden ring onto his slender finger.

"Always."

_Yuri, I promise to stay close to you, till the day time ends. I will protect you, hold you through the darkest night, for today, for tomorrow, for eternity, in this lifetime and next. From this day on, all of me belong to you._

They don't need words anymore.

Their true vows are those words unspoken.

* * *

Silently they walk with their arms around each other, the only sounds are their shoes sinking into the layer of snow. They walk through the remnants of the broken world.

 _The most dangerous place is the safest place..._ Victor remembers those are Yakov's last words. They decided to go back to the very place they met.

The elevator is broken, they walk up the stairs, hands interlaced. There is no one left in the building where the lab used to be. A dog howls somewhere in the distances.

They are both slightly out of breath as they push open the door of the 56th floor.

Victor pushes the door of his lab once more. The large panes of glass extending from the roof to the ceiling is surprisingly still in tact. Several of Victor's books have fallen out of the shelf. Victor squeezes Yuri's hand, his fingertips cold. Their rings glisten in the night. He tries to shut out the pain of the image of the last time he left this place. He winces at the image of Georgi lying in a pool of blood, and of the sound of Mila screaming.

Not far from Victor the weaved basket containing the spider plant have fallen, but the plant is still alive. He opens his bottom drawer and removes a glass tank and fills it with water. He rests the plant inside.

Yuri walks towards him with 2 mugs of coffee. "I guess the coffee maker still works." Yuri sits close to him on the floor, with their backs leaning against the couch, their hips touching. Victor didn't move. Victor keeps a backup electricity generator in here for the cell cultures.

"Thanks," the radiant warmth of the coffee mug almost burns Victor's hands. He puts his head on Yuri's shoulder. Yuri takes a sip of the same black coffee that Victor cannot live without.

"Tell me again who you are," Yuri meets his blue green eyes, he nods.

He told Victor everything, how he met and became sworn brothers with Yurio, how his master trained him to be an assassin, how he was given the nickname the Mantis. And how he was sent to come close to Victor and retrieve the forbidden project Victor and Yakov worked together before. _Project Delta._

"Victor," Yuri wraps an arm around Victor's neck, "You see, I am different, _we_ are different." He takes a deep breath, "I was _created_."

Victor appears puzzled.

"More than forty years ago, Yakov Feltsman and two apprentices had a breakthrough in St. Petersburg," Yuri strokes his hair like starlight, "There is a project in the organization named _Genesis_ , where they figured out how to manipulate genes freely before birth of a child." Yuri continues, "they can select for intelligence, physical strength, down to colour of the hair and the eyes."

Yuri sighs, "some of the the rich and powerful patrons of the organization wanted the project to be continued, because they want to create the perfect soldiers. They wanted to create a new world where only the intelligent and the strong live. They designed their own children, and they built in the gene to become immune to the virus that is currently destroying the rest of the world. And I was created, to be that perfect soldier." This is the reason Yuri takes one tenth the amount of time to learn the same knowledge as the average person. This is the reason Yuri knows seven different languages. This is the reason he is strong, and fast. This makes him the Mantis.

Victor's eyes widen. He feels as if he is chilled from the core. He clings onto Yuri desperately for warmth.

"Yakov's two students realized what they were doing and decided to disappear and to leave the organization," Victor holds him a little tighter, "Victor, what I am about to tell you is not going to be easy to hear." Yuri puts one hand on the side of Victor's cheek, his darks eyes piercing through his blue-green ones. Yuri kisses his cheek softly, "They were killed in a fire. But their child survived."

Victor feel as if his heart stopped. _Yakov, St. Petersburg, the fire...his parents..._

Yuri realizes Victor is putting his own story together, Yuri lightly kisses the golden ring Victor placed on his finger, the only possession of his parents that Victor has.

Everything is starting to make sense, the reason Yakov taught him how to fire guns though he was reluctant to learn, the reason Yakov protected him, the reason Yakov told him to be careful because of his intellect, someday there will be people to either try to recruit him or to kill him. Victor didn't believe him at the time, he thought his mentor was being paranoid from being in the military for too long. His vision begins to blur, he knows what Yuri is about to say next.

"That child was you." Yuri feels Victor's grasp on his back tighten.

"Why did they let me live?" Victor pulls back from their tight embrace. Yuri aches to see him in so much pain 

"Yakov had a chance to be free from the organization if he hands over Genesis, but he gave it up. He agreed to continue working for them, in order to protect you. He convinced them that you carry a variant of the gene encoding for the highest level of intelligence, and that killing you would be a waste." _Which is not far from the truth,_ Yuri silently adds. "Then you and Yakov developed _project Delta,_ which can manipulate genes after birth, and deliver the genes needed to fight the virus. I have every reason to believe that the patrons of the organization are the ones that released the virus."

 _"_ How did you know all of this? Yuri, just...who are you?"

"I am the next in line to the leader." Yuri looks completely different now from the person that Victor first met because he has his dark hair slicked back, and his mysterious and confident aura. _Victor, I will never lie to you gain._

_Yakov...I am so sorry...I had never known everything you have done was for me._

Despite the heaviness of the truths swallowing him deeper into darkness, he cannot help but be mesmerized by the new Yuri. The one without any disguises. The one with his bare naked soul right in front of him. He wants him.

Yuri can feel Victor's heart beating fast right next to his own. Slowly he leans down and kisses him on the lips.

This is their first real kiss, where one of them isn't bleeding, dying or breaking into one thousand pieces. They know there is a cruel battle ahead of them, but they are not alone anymore.

The world can wait till tomorrow...

Tonight is their wedding night.

"Tell me the story behind your tattoos," he locks his gaze. Victor is on his hands and knees. He slides a hand up Yuri's back and lifts his black shirt sending shivers down his spine as Victor's fingers trail across the tattoos on his back - the most private parts of him. There are stories that he could not even tell his brother.

His black shirt falls onto the ground next to them. He reaches to undo Victor's buttons one by one. Below them the city lights are out, revealing the stars inthe sky. Victor lightly kisses the first tattoo on his back. There is the image of a fox smoking a pipe. That was the man that Yuri killed in South America, right before saving his brother. He was cunning and old, like an ancient wicked fox. He shivers a little as a flashback returns to him of that man whose carotid artery he pierced spraying blood on his face, and the memory of him washing his hands until the skin is cracked. 

The moonlight illuminates the images on his back in memory of every person whose life he had taken away. He told Victor having permanent ink on his back and meeting his little brother finally made him stop washing the imaginary blood off his hands.

He moves on to the next tattoo, the Cheshire cat. The dragon. The sleeping white dog. The snake...the images go on. 

 _No more lies._ He felt his bare naked soul is hanging before Victor. His kisses deepen as Yuri runs his hands through his soft silvery hair and parts it to the side.

With one hand he caresses Victor's beautiful face, with another he props himself up until his lithe body is pressed against Victor's from the top.

* * *

Yuri wakes up against Victor's bare chest. He feels strange, like he is a completely new person. Shivers run down his spine as he reminisces of last night and the feeling of Victor's touch and his lips on parts of his body that nobody else had ever been before.

Victor stirs and opens his eyes, he winces slightly as he shifts from gentle pain of last night. He runs his fingers along Yuri's back, where the tattoos are no longer mysteries anymore. He runs his fingers along the base Yuri's neck where his kiss left his mark. He wants to wake up every day like this. _I don't care about your past, the one I love is you in the present._

"Sorry if I hurt you last night," Yuri strokes his face gently.

Victor shakes his head, "for you, one thousand times over."

* * *

Thank you for the kudos and the kind comments, they made me really happy! 

A few things:

1\. This story surprised me and took a life of its own.

2\. I changed the ending.

3\. Next chapter, Yurio meets Otabek (under some strange circumstances). You know by now anything can happen in my stories.

4\. I have another story planned after this one (fantasy, AU)

5\. I think sexiness can be portrayed without being explicit......right? :P

Tell me what you think!

Hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did writing it, once again thank you for staying with me.

xoxo

Antares


	9. Rise

Victor leans against him inside the bathtub with his back facing him, as if this is the most natural thing in the world.

 _I could get used to this..._ Yuri thinks to himself.

Yuri buries his face in Victor's neck, his skin tingling at every place their body touch. He feels every line of firm muscle on Victor's back. He wraps one arm across Victor's chest and the other around his waist. He feels his own body reacting to this closeness as he remembers last night where they finally let go of all of their lies and all of their self control. He suppresses his desires because he is afraid of hurting him again.

 _Maybe one day, when all of this is over we will can all of the time in the world._ _Maybe we will die before that. But at least now I can say that I lived._ Yuri catches a glimmer of the golden ring on Victor's finger. He is still in disbelief. _Is everything real?_

"Yuri, yes, everything is real," he can hear the smile in Victor's voice, he answers to Yuri's thoughts, as he interlaces his fingers with Yuri's and kisses his ring. "I could stay like this forever."

Yuri kisses his neck affectionately.

Outside, the world is empty, the remaining people are lurking in the shadows, fearing for themselves, fearing each other and becoming infected with the deadly disease that made the world a silent graveyard. Prior to meeting Victor, Yuri would have thought the rest of the world can go fuck themselves. He would keep his brother safe, and that's good enough for him. But after they met, in Victor's lab that he calls home, the place where the brilliant sun shines through the high roof with tall glass windows spanning from ceiling to floor, everything changed. Victor is the first person he wants to hold onto. He once thought he would live for the bottomless wealth and power of the organization once he is set free. He didn't care for others, with few exceptions. Victor taught him to live for more. Victor made him promise to never kill again in their wedding vows. He felt as if all the burden the nightmares that haunted him for years have gone lighter ever since.

Wrapped in Victor's warmth, Yuri decided to set things right. He inhales Victor's familiar scent, "I will burn the organization from its core." His dark eyes narrow, he sits up straighter, his black hair slicked back, he is confident and deadly. Like his former nickname. The Mantis.

Victor slowly turns facing him, unable to take his eyes off him. He loves the Yuri in the past as his socially awkward and intelligent lab assistant. He loves the fearless and mysterious side of Yuri, who deflected bullets with his sword and his body to protect him. He loves even more Yuri in the present, whose tattoos tell stories of him battling the two sides of himself - the merciless assassin against the one filled selfless love. Victor strokes his dark hair and his face, and traces the lines of Yuri's neck and down to his chest, where his kiss from last night left its mark. _I want to spend forever like this._

Yuri leans forward and gently kisses his eyes, over his beautiful long eye lashes and the tip of his nose. Drips of water falls from Yuri's hair onto Victor's silver eyelashes. He presses his lips against Victor's softly, like the wings of a butterfly.

They are cherishing these brief moments together, as if they are the only people in the world.

They pull back at the same time, knowing there is work to do, knowing that they may not survive through the perilous fight before them.

"I know Yakov well, everything he does is meticulous. Yakov is always prepared." Victor begins. "I didn't know he worked for the organization."

Yuri knows where he is going next.

"If Yakov spent all these years protecting me, but also stayed safe himself this means his rank must be high and that he is not...expendable. He must have people within the organization working for him...there must be a faction with the organization fighting against this madness sparked by Project Genesis falling into the wrong hands." Victor turns around facing him, their eyes meet and they are thinking of the same thing.

 _Victor your intelligence scares me..._ Yuri firmly nods. "We need to find them."

Unbeknownst to them, that faction is looking for them as well.

"We know the organization unleashed the virus to wipe out the world while they wait in the shadows. The patrons of the organization will reemerge when the 'purge' is over with their so called perfect children, selected for strength and intelligence by Project Genesis." Yuri continues. They are waiting in the darkness for the old world to die, making room for their new.

The patrons are the rich and powerful that speak in low voices and drink in the Eternal - the elusive night club leading to the lairs of the organization and the cusp of two worlds.

Victor's gazes at the ground when he thinks of his parents whose faces are now blurry to him. He imagines what his parents must be like as graduate students in Yakov's lab, their laughing eyes. And his parents, being too brilliant for their own good discovering the way to manipulate genes freely before birth of a child. And realizing what would happen if this was to fall into the wrong hands. Then packing away their whole lives to move to a small town. Pieces of his own life is coming together like the strands of a spider web. He is not sure if he wants to know the answer that lies at the center of that web. He thinks back of his old life being Yakov's student, discovering the virus with the ability to insert genes anywhere he wishes. This includes genes that can cure disease, the genes that tell cancer cells to die. The gene that makes the antibodies to the virus sweeping through the world like wildfire. They named it with the Greek letter Delta. It means change. He remembers the video Yakov sent to him before he died, a twinge of sharp pain runs across his chest. He remembers the way blood trickled down Yakov's neck muscles tighten and the way his twisted expression of pain. He does not want to remember his mentor this way.

Yuri tightens his grip around his hand. "The organization must have taken Project Delta and used it to give the patrons immunity to the virus. Yakov being gone, murdered, the only other person who understand Project Delta is you."

This is the reason the organization sent Yuri to come close to Victor. They are planning to recruit him as Yakov's replacement or to kill him if he disobeys. It is their gain either way.

Project Delta is the remaining world's last hope.

* * *

Yurio turns the keys to the apartment he and his brother shares. On one hand he is happy for Victor and Yuri, on the other he does not want to know what they are doing right now...he chuckles to himself.

The tiny apartment is the same as when he last left it. Howl, the stray cat with blue eyes that would not stop following him until he eventually gives in, rubs against his legs affectionately.

He picks him up and strokes his long fur. His body is white and the tips of his ears are dipped in grey. He's gotten bigger. When he first picked him up from the streets he was skin and bone. _You are just like me...Howl._

His memories brings him back to the time in South America when he and Yuri became sworn brothers. Yurio was 10 at the time. Yuri rescued him along with other children who was trafficked and locked inside a shipping container. He remembers when he first met his brother and his eyes shined with admiration of how strong he was. Yurio knew he did not want to leave his side. He fondly recalls himself clinging onto Yuri's sleeve and refused to let go. He was the one that led Yuri to the right warehouse where he rescued the other children. Yuri initially was reluctant and tried to shoo him away, bribe him with money, but he was determined to stand by him. Yuri eventually gave in. He bought the first tiger shirt for him, gave him a bath removing the knots on his matted dirty blonde hair gently, and trimmed those locks afterwards. Yurio didn't know an assassin's hands could be so gentle.

Yuri initially was reluctant to keeping the cat, but Yurio rolls his eyes and ignored him instead. He recalls Yuri grumbling: _of all the cats you decide to pick up from the streets, you picked up the meanest, snarliest one..._ Yurio would laugh at him while holding his furry friend who is snuggled against him affectionately, he responded: _I don't know what you are talking about._

That's when he decided to name him Howl: tiny but ferocious.

"You are just like me, aren't you," Yurio smiles at his friend and kisses the top of his head. Howl ignores Yuri most of the time. There is a mutual understanding between them after Yuri flipped the switch over from Yurio's big brother to the Mantis, the most feared assassin in the entire organization, when the cat tried to hiss at him. Yuri glared at him straight in the eyes. Even the cat can read his deadly aura that says: _don't fuck with me._

Howl purrs and his eyes are half shut with pleasure from the attention. Yurio smiles as he reminisces these moments with his brother. For the past five years he never really left his sworn brother's side.

Yurio glances around the small studio apartment, there is a tall table against the glass window with two black bar stools. The apartment is shaped like an L, one corner of it belongs to Yurio and the other side, his brother. Yuri's side is simple, a single bed with plain white sheets and a grey blanket neatly folded. He wonders how things will change now that Victor is in the picture.

He walks over to his side of the room, it is messy, the old book he picked up yesterday "le Petit Prince" sit on his unmade bed with dark blue blankets. He walks over to the window and glances at the eerie emptiness outside, like a graveyard. The weather is getting warmer, dirty snow beginning to melt creating puddles on the empty sidewalk.

 _I have to make things right again. The organization can burn. The master too._ Yurio grits his teeth.

He pulls out his laptop from the drawer at the base of his bed and rests it on the high table facing the window. He feels the warmth from the sun on his face.

He bites his bottom lip and goes to work.

_Yuri, I will make you the leader, and I know exactly how to do it._

* * *

Otabek hates animals.

Real ones anyway.

He prefers the robotic ones he builds himself as a hobby.

Over the years he's earned a number of names for himself. The Spider. The Executioner.

He was the perfect soldier. He used to do the dirty work for the organization, including torturing prisoners to obtain information. But everything changed when he turned 16.

The organization suddenly summoned him to write tests until he feels lightheaded and his vision blurred. They made him take off all of his clothes and multiple doctor examined him from head to toe, and looked in every orifice. Then at the end they told him he is going to be adopted.

His parents are patrons of the organization who cannot have children of their own. Overnight he became the heir of one of the most powerful families in the New World. Powerful enough to have their own ring. On his left thumb is a simple signet ring, carved into it, the intricate design of a bear.

He decided to stay with the organization, but his role changed. Even the master, the mysterious masked leader of the organization treats him with respect instead of barking orders to question the next prisoner. He was promoted, he no longer needs to get his hands dirty and torture people as he was instructed. Sometimes when there are tough cases, when a resilient prisoner would not give and he is called upon to step in. There is no one Otabek Altin cannot break. The master loosened the leash and lets him do as he pleases.

He gazes at his own reflection in the glass elevator ascending from the deep underground. His black hair long on top and shaved neatly in a fade along the sides. His express stoic, as usual, like a perfect soldier he was created to be. He leaves the button of his black coat open, revealing a white shirt inside and a black scarf. Underneath the white shirt his muscles are well defined. He brushes the scarf lightly with his fingers and bites his lips to suppress the pain.

That scarf belonged to no one other than his beloved mentor Yakov himself. He inhales sharply, glad to be leaving the deep underground into the world above. I have to finish what Yakov started. _Yakov, you had the easy way out..._ his dark eyes harden as he tightens his fist thinking of his mentor and the loud sound of his laughter. He remembers when Yakov first took him under his wing and showed him a robot spider that he built, powered by solar panel. He remembers watching it walk along the window sill with fascination. He wonders what he would do if the world hasn't fallen into pieces, and that he wasn't the organization's executioner. He would be an engineer, he thinks, and he would be good at it. He would build mechanical body parts for people who lost theirs. Yakov praised him for the speed which he learns, assembling the circuits to recreate the robot spider as a child that no one cared about before the age of 16.

He was amongst the children created during the final experimental stages of Project Genesis that was trafficked to South America in a shipping container and rescued by someone from the organization named the Mantis. He was thirteen at the time, and that's when he met someone he would never forget.

Memories begin to flood back.

He could not forget those fierce forest green eyes and hair the color of the morning star. He remembers being trapped in the darkness for hours with other children, weak from hunger and delirious from spending hours in the dark, not knowing how much time have passed, not knowing whether it is night and day. He thought about giving up time and time again. He could never forget the moldy stench of that shipping container, and the constant nausea from motion from the sea, compounded by the smell of vomit and piss.

_But Yurachka never stopped fighting._

Otabek found a piece of rusty razor blade and hid it his hands when he pretended to go outside to relieve himself while the container is at sea. His keepers were too lazy to clean shit off the floor so they let him out. He thought about slicing through his wrist and ending things over and over.

Despite not speaking the same language, Yura knew. He hissed and whispered something angrily in Russian, snatched the blade from him and sliced through the cable ties bounding his wrist instead.

Otabek could never forget those eyes.

Those unforgettable eyes of a soldier.

 _Yura, where are you?_ He wonders. _Would you remember me if we meet again._

He used to go to the Box, an arena behind the elusive night club hiding the realm behind the organization, where the patrons entertain themselves on the cusps of two worlds to catch glimpses of him. In the Box, an arena where the members of the organization train in combat. He used to watch Yura fight. Despite Yura's still changing body, he is fast and strong, and capable of taking down multiple opponents twice his size. He is like a golden beacon of hope, filled with life itself.

Otabek remembers watching Yura from the darkness. He wanted to speak with him, but his mission forbids him from coming close to others. He didn't want Yura to associate with someone like him, a secret faction within the organization trying to burn it from its core. It's too dangerous. He watched the way Yuri Katsuki messes up Yura's blonde hair affectionately while the perpetually angry fifteen year old cussed. Otabek is glad that is friend is loved. 

He wonders if under different circumstances, if they were free and ordinary, what they would be. Maybe they could have been friends.

Each day Otabek walks the fine line between life and death. The higher he rises in ranks, the closer the scale tips towards death. He walks the delicate balance of power, not even the master can touch him easily because of his position. He didn't like questioning and torturing prisoner, even if they are filthy scums and mass murders. It scares him that each time he inflicts pain it becomes easier than the last. Meeting Yakov changed him. Initially the only thing he knew was that he is a soldier and that he obeys. Yakov taught him otherwise. He taught him that all human lives matter, and that they are equally precious.

 _Yakov, you left me the hard part._ He sighs. He knows he is not cut out to be the leader. He always imagined himself as the leader's right hand man, whispering in his ear. Yakov's last instructions for him was to keep the secret of the Resistance for as long as possible, and to find another suitable to take the leader's place.

And he knows exactly whom he is looking for.

The Mantis.

The formidable mercenary who is now labelled traitor by the entire organization.

The one who protected Yura after all these years.

Katsuki Yuri.

* * *

In the end they couldn't hold back.

There are water all over the bathroom floor. Yuri's breaths are still heavy as he rests his face against Victor's racing heart that is on its way of slowing down. His face flushed, his lips slightly swollen from the way Victor was kissing him, fiercely and desperately. Victor bit into his bottom lip, just as that day Yuri did to him, seconds before Victor put a bullet through his side. That day where both of them broke because Victor thought Yuri had betrayed him seems like years away.

The way Victor whispers his name makes him crazy. The way Victor's muscle tenses and relaxes, every expressions that he makes, the sharpness of his jaw, and his hair like the starlight, wet and wild - everything about him makes Yuri lose control.

To Yuri, he is the most beautiful person in the entire universe. 

All of the walls have fallen between them.

_I fucking love you, Victor Nikiforov. Even If we are heading straight to hell, I will walk beside you, hand in hand._

* * *

Greetings!

Work went crazy this week...I do have an intense job but I love it & signed up for it with no regrets...(most of the time hahaha).

This is the chapter where I open the lid of Pandora's box sort of speak, hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you, as always for the comments and kudos!

Let me tell you a bit about my next story: Demon Song.

It will be a fantasy AU where Yuri bears the name "calamity's child", shunned by the world because demons are drawn to him. Victor comes from an ancient line of Mages but his power hasn't awoken. Two broken people meet and begin to heal. Then they made a promise neither could keep. Because Yuri found out he is the last prince of the demon kind, Victor's family brutally slaughtered demons for generations and made them slaves. Victor's powers awakened and his simple touch can turn lesser demons into ashes. They were born to be enemies. Set in a world where demons can have hearts filled with kindness, while savage angels stalk the skies. This is a story about ancient wrongs being set right, and one love worth fighting for.

xoxo

Antares

* * *


	10. Your Friend

**Chapter 10: Your Friend**

"Initiate me," Yurio stands before the masked leader of the organization with his hands on top of the large mahogany desk. Yurio can only see the his cold blue eyes through the slits of the mask. His palms are covered with cold sweat, he commands his racing heart to slow down the way his brother taught him to. Nobody has seen the master's face before, not even his sworn brother Yuri, who is the next in line to be the leader. "I want to be useful to the organization." He says impatiently, pretending to fill his green eyes with greed.

Initiation means having a chip implanted into his neck. Only those with high rank within the organization has the chip. The chip can transmit location, summon help, and finally it has a death function that allows the agent to end his own life in dire situations. The chip implanted inside Yuri's neck was destroyed by the bullet that he blocked with his own body protecting Victor. All traces of him disappeared from the organization ever since.

Yurio had always wanted that chip, he wanted to prove that he is strong, but Yuri does not like the idea of his brother being involved in the organization. Yuri does not want him to be sent to kill and to stain his hands with blood. Though he also knows, once Yurio's mind is made up, there is little he can do. Y _uri, I'm sorry._ Yurio silently apologizes. Right now Yurio has another plan.

"Very well," Yurio can hear the cruel smile behind that icy white mask. The master's office does not have windows. The walls are painted black, like a prison so dark, not even light cannot escape. The 6 feet tall man stands over him like a mountain. His large hands slightly tremulous as he reaches forwards. He takes a sip of scotch from the black octagonal glass sitting on his desk casting an eerie shadow. His hand tremor seems to stop.

 _Perfect. Just as planned._ Yurio commands his heart to slow down. He took some of Yuri's collection of poison vials and slipped it inside every bottle in the cellar seamlessly the night before. He was soundless like a midnight predator.

Yurio watches the mountain of a man in front of him hang his suit jacket onto his chair. White hair emerge from behind his mask. He never sees the master as old until now, for that split second he notices the wrinkles on those thick hands that ended many lives. Maybe he feels old and wants to spend his remaining life in seclusion and peace. Yurio eyes the ring on the master's right hand glisten from the reflection from the single yellow light above. That ring is the exact object Yurio is after. It stands in the way between Yuri and becoming the leader of the organization on the cusp of two worlds. It has a raven carved onto the signet part, intricate down to the last feather with a glistening onyx for the eye.

Yuri thought the idea of a single ring as the symbol of the ultimate power of the organization and all members must unconditionally obey sounds...medieval.

Yurio stares at the object of his desire on those thick and cruel sausage like fingers. _Tonight, I may need to cut that ring off your cold and dead fingers._ He inhales sharply.

The master readjusts his suit jacket on the back of the chair, his hand tremors return again, he sighs and takes another sip from his black glass to try to make it go away.

 _Drink it all, you piece of filth._ Yurio's green eyes icy cold. _You deserve a more painful death than the one I planned for you._

Suddenly the master chokes and splutters, spitting the liquor on the ground.

"You alright?" _Die, you piece of scum._ Yurio pretends to care.

"Something smells...funny in here," the master pulls out a silver handkerchief. With slow and deliberate steps he walks to the antique cabinet with elaborate curves and wood carvings along the edges. "Do you smell it too?"

Yurio shakes his head.

Every hair on Yurio's back stands. His hand tightens around the handle knife with the same kind of poison that hunters use to paralyze their prey painted along the edge. He plays different possibilities in his head as the master turns with his back facing him. He thinks of piercing the knife into his shoulders at the right spot to puncture his lungs. Yurio is carrying enough objects on him to kill the master many times over.

He never killed anyone before. Back when he is hiding with Victor, he only shot people in spots that he knows would not end their lives. The worst thing he did to someone was to shoot him in the kneecaps, but he was a predator chasing a young girl and deserved it. Yurio never experienced the same horror his brother did, like the feeling of the texture of the body parts change as the knife plunges in deeper, or hearing the sound of the death rattle - the last desperate inhale moments before death...or having his face sprayed with blood in spurts from his victim's carotid until his vision is red and he can taste the warm metallic blood. He knows Yuri does not want him to become a part of this world, but he cannot help himself. This is the only world Yurio knows of.

The master opens the drawer slowly and takes out a dark violet piece of incense and a bronze holder with a crow matching the one etched to his ring. He takes out a lighter from him pocket and lights the incense, purple smoke rise mysteriously into the air inside his office with walls painted black. "Much better."

The aroma of lavender fills Yurio's nose, lavender and something else he could not pin down...his stomach growls uneasily. _What would you do now, Yuri?_

His guts tell him something is wrong. He watches the master's back and each tiny movements. He needs to act, now.

Yurio suddenly leaps into the air with his knife in one hand. Suddenly the world spins in circles, his legs give out from under him. That purple smoke from the incensed is still rising, slowly, seductively, and intoxicatingly. Yurio refuses to give up, he commands his leaden body to move with all of his will.

The master spins around slowly, with one hand he grabs onto Yurio's blade painted with poison drawing blood purposefully. He explodes into insane laughter. Yurio watches drops of the master's blood trickle down the side of his wrist, past the raven ring, symbolizing the ultimate power of the organization. "Deadly Nightshade. Curare. Nice try."

Yurio can no longer move his body.

The master knows exactly the type of poison he Yurio slipped into his drink and painted onto the knife's blade. He picks up Yurio by his collar with one hand, staining his dark shirt with the tiger on it with dark red blood. "I could not believe how easy that was, that traitor's little brother handing himself on a silver platter."

Yurio can feel bile rising from his throat. His body still unable to move. He narrows his forest green eyes and spits onto the face of his captor.

"Feisty, aren't we," the leader of the organization laughs. "I am going to use you to make your traitor of a brother hand over Nikiforov." With the other hand the Master pulls out his silver handkerchief again to wipe his mask. "I'm going to enjoy watching him choose between you and Victor."

"My brother will never -" Yurio stops in mid sentence.

"You don't think I know that they are fucking?" His beady blue eyes narrow. "How disgusting, I wasted all those years training him." He shakes his head. "Shame."

"My brother will make you pay," Yurio lunges forward to try to sink his teeth into those meaty hands.

"As for you, while waiting for that traitor Katsuki to bring over his Victor, I am going enjoy breaking you. I will make you beg and crawl and regret that you were ever born."

"I'll die first - " Yurio clenches his jaw.

"No you won't, Tiger," the master leans dangerously close, the tip of their nose almost touching. "That's not for you to decide. He slams Yurio onto the ground like a rag doll.

Stars explode and dance before his eyes, he thinks his scalp is bleeding as he feels it's warmth trickle down his neck. He can taste his own blood inside his mouth.

"I own you Yuri Plisetski," his cold voice reverberates through the dark walls, "body and soul."

He watches the master take off his raven ring and sets it on his large mahogany desk and snapping sound of the lord of the underworld puting on a pair of gloves. His vision begin to fade, the last thing he hears is the master's deep voice, "Master Altin, if I may request for your presence..."

* * *

Yurio wakes up in the darkness with a throbbing feeling at the back of his neck, his wrists. His lips are cracked and dry, the metallic taste of his own blood lingers. He finds both of his arms shackled onto the wall.

He finds a metal ring around his neck, with a horizontal groove down the middle and a red flashing light at the centre, like a collar. Yurio shudders. The cold metal from similar rings are pressing against his skin on his wrists and ankles.

In front of him he finds two of the master's lackeys in dark clothes and face masks covering half of their faces not paying attention to him.

"Master said not to fuck up his collar," one of them whispers to the other. "If you do this entire place blows up."

"I heard the Master Altin was summoned to break him," the taller one sighs.

"It ain't gonna be pretty." The short one tosses their prisoner a look that is almost sympathetic. "I don't want to stick around and watch."

 _Fuck._ Yurio feels like there are sandbags dragging every part of his body into the ocean drowning him. _Yuri, I am so sorry._ _To think that I thought I can single handedly take down the leader that taught Yuri to be the Mantis. I fucked up._ He thought he planned the operation flawlessly. Down to the details of his escape plan and setting the entire place on fire.

Yurio's vision slowly adapt to the darkness. Suddenly the door creaks open and a tall figure enters with strong and sure steps.

"Master Altin," the two lackeys greet the newcomer, their voices tremble a little with fear.

"Leave us," an icy cold voice reverberates through the cold dark room, where hundreds died with their spirits broken.

"Of course," the two guards nod and disappear a little too quickly.

Otabek can tell they do not want to stick around and watch. He is painfully aware of the master following him as he is asked to question this prisoner. He suspects the master is hovering outside the door. _That weasel._

Yurio narrows his eyes. I wonder what kind of sick fuck they sent this time. From the guards' conversation he knows he will not be killed, because right now his life is useful. But there are things that can happen that is much worse than getting killed. This is the world he is only too familiar with.

Yuri always said he didn't think he would live past the age thirty. His job is a dance with the grim reaper on the edge of a cliff. Any slip or stumble he can fall into the abyss.

Yurio bites his lower lip, still tasting his own blood. _What would Yuri do now? Should I count my breaths?_ He cannot help but feel his heart beats racing, he commands it to slow down, but it won't listen.

"Go ahead." Yurio does his best job to pretend to be calm, there is a knot deep inside his stomach, he can feel perspiration on the back of his neck. "I am not telling you shit!" His eyes suddenly widen as he meets the dark black eyes of his captor. He inhales sharply as a whip strikes the wall directly next to his right ear causing parts of the cement to fall into his head.

"Tell me where that traitor Katsuki is, NOW!" Another sound of the whip ripping through cement. "Or I'll take my time with you."

Yurio gazes at the tall figure before him with dark eyes. "Who are you?" _I will not give you the satisfaction of watching me scream. Go fuck yourself._ Yurio's voice is calm.

"Your personal version of...hell," Otabek utters loudly and venomously. Suddenly he leans down and whispers in Yurio's ear,"Listen, I am a friend."

Yurio feel his ear tingle from his captor's breaths. He smells cleanly shaven. "Why the fuck should I trust you." Yurio whispers back. The stoic face before him looks more and more familiar. Flashbacks of the time in South America when he was ten years old and locked inside the shipping container come to his mind for some reason that he could not pin down.

"I don't have time to explain, but you saved my life, and you gave me a reason to live," Otabek begin to attach electrodes stickers onto Yurio's arms, legs and neck. "Brazil. Shipping container. 2012. Yura, do you remember me?" His stoic expression suddenly softens. His heart races. _All these years I wanted to talk to you, but I couldn't because I belong in a rebel faction within the organization. I cannot believe this is the circumstance, where we meet again._ He can hear his own heart beats pulsating in his ears. _Yura, I will protect you with my life. You are more important to me than life itself. Please tell me that you remember..._

Yurio didn't realize someone who is expert at breaking prisoners can have such gentle eyes. As his own vision further adjusts to the darkness he focuses on every sharp line in his captor's features that becomes more defined, masculine, and angular over the years. Suddenly, everything becomes crystal clear. "Beka? It is really you?" Yura notices a tiny glimmer in Otabek's eyes.

Beka's lips presses together firmly, as he almost breaks into a smile. He nods. "I would never let anything happen to you." Before he knows it, he strokes the side of Yura's head, firmly and gently at the same time. His fingers run through those golden locks the color of the morning star, the color of his golden beacon of hope. He takes out a water bottle, takes sip from it himself first then holds it to Yura's lips.

That water is the most delicious thing he has ever drank in his life, he empties that bottle within a few seconds. Beka wipes the crusted blood from the bottom of his lips gently with his sleeve. "T-thanks." Yura feels more alive again. Aside from Yuri, his sworn brother, he's never had a friend before. With Beka, he feels as if not a single passed between when they were children locked inside that shipping container and the present. He does not need his tough and perpetually angry disguise. He feels as if he can be completely himself around his old friend. He secretly wonders what if they are completely ordinary, and not buried neck deep in the organization. What if they meet as two ordinary people in the world above. He wishes they have more time to catch up, he wants to know where Beka has been for the past five years. Why he disappeared from his life without a trace.

"I don't have much time," Beka takes is right hand out of his pocket, unfolds it, and sitting on his palm is the ring that Yura almost died for. The master's ring with the crow etched on its side with an onyx for the eye. This ring symbolizes the ultimate power in the organization and that each soldier in the organization must unconditionally obey.

Yura gasps. "How did you -"

"I am going to hand this to your brother," His dark eyes meet Yura's forest green ones, "along with all of the powers I hold in my hands. The master does not dare touch me because of my position, you see, when I was sixteen, my parents who are patrons of the organization adopted me. There are those amongst the organization and the patrons that do not believe in destroying the old world and creating another one anew, and we believe that all human lives are equal...and precious. We tried to stop the organization from spreading the virus to purge the old world, but we failed." Beka shifts his gaze towards the ground. Half of his face is in the darkness, while the other half is illuminated by the dim light coming from the small window on the door of this prison. "I had to hide the existence of the rebel faction within the organization until the time comes and there is another suitable to rise and become the leader that I am not cut out to be. But I know Katsuki Yuri is the one we have been waiting for. The master will make Yuri hand over Victor in exchange for your life -"

"Then please, end mine -" Yura interrupts him, his green eyes determined. _My brother loves Victor, this choice will break him..._

Beka's thick eyebrows turn downward, "I would never let anything happen to you." He cups Yura's face in between his hands until their noses are almost touching. "I will help Yuri burn the organization down from its core, along with you, and Victor. We are not going to lose anyone." His tone is firm and determined.

Yura believes him. They once slept on the dark and cold metal floor leaned against each other back to back. Yura once pulled him back from ending his life himself with a rusty razor blade. They didn't even speak the same language back then. The only thing they knew was each other's name. Yurachka and Otabek. "Can I ask you for one thing?"

"For you, I would do anything, my friend." Beka replies without hesitation.

"Take care of Howl," the sides of Yura's lips curl up a little, "he the cat that I couldn't leave behind from the streets," He breaks into a full smile, "Yuri thinks he is snarly, he might try to hiss and bite strangers, but if you take my coat, he'll know my scent on you and know that you are with me."

Otabek hates animals.

But that beautiful smile makes him weak, "Of course."

Suddenly Beka turns sharply towards the small window outside. He hears the sound of shuffling feet. "When I count to three I want you to scream." He whispers urgently.

"One."

"Two."

"TELL ME THEIR LOCATION," He suddenly lunges forwards until their faces are inches apart. "NOW!"

"Three."

Yura lets put a guttural scream as Otabek pushes the button on the box the wires lead to the electrodes attached to his chest, and neck. The dark box shudders making a buzzing sound.

But the pain never comes.

"I have to leave," Beka feels a little sad that their brief reunion now has to end, "go to sleep," he removes a tiny pill from his left pocket, "when you are asleep the master won't be able to have the satisfaction of inflicting pain."

Yura nods as the bitter pill dissolves under his tongue.

"I am coming back for you, I promise. And I'll set you free."

They both know that the collar around his neck, arms and legs contain enough power to burst a hole through a few city blocks. Their trigger lies in the hands of the master still. He must be furious to find that his ring is gone.

And Otabek has a plan.

* * *

"Yakov taught me how to shoot, and I never miss," Victor puts a silencer on his gun in the shooting range that Yakov drags him to a few times every year. He doesn't like guns, but for his mentor he reluctantly agreed to come along. He convinces Yuri to come to this place as a distraction. Yuri has been brooding and planning burn the organization to the ground. _I need to become stronger, so I can protect Yuri._

Yuri watches with admiration as Victor shoots the ten targets next to each other with deadly precision right at the centre. Victor unloads his gun.

"You think you can beat the deadliest assassin from the organization," Yuri teases him.

"Perhaps."

Yuri raises his silenced gun towards the targets, and with pure confidence fires twenty shots one after another. The first ten pierces through the dead centre where Victor's bullets pierced through and the next ten, he shoots the wooden planks holding the targets up and watch them fall one by one into a pile.

Victor gasps. The silence around them is deafening.

Yuri begin to unload his gun, he meets Victor's beautiful eyes and breaks into a small smile.

Victor snatches his gun from his hand, he pulls Yuri close to him. "Some day we will not need these anymore."

Yuri nods as he gives himself away into Victor's warm embrace and their lips meet.

* * *

 _A bit snarly, so he says,_ Otabek shakes his head, finally the cat is willing to stay still wrapped in the bundle of Yura's faux leather coat with leopard prints along the side and metal studs around the shoulder, _Howl, you are a little monster..._

He touches his chin, and looks at his fingers, good, there's no blood...Howl tried to scratch his eyes out moments before.

He wrestled the little beast for the past twenty minutes, he is someone who could take down five opponents at the same time easily. Yet Yura's mysterious and fierce cat has the power to escape his grasp time and time again.

Otabek sighs. _Only for you, my friend._

* * *

They return to the lab Victor calls home.

Victor turns on his laptop containing the forbidden Project Delta that previously he does not have the courage to face again, given the number of lives it cost, but with Yuri by his side, he gathers all of his strength. He will use it to find the cure for the deadly virus sweeping through the entire world.

He is the last hope.

"Coffee?" This scene reminds him of the first days they met in the lab. Victor smiles at the beautiful man in front of him holding a large mug of black coffee.

Yuri still does not fully comprehend Victor's love for black coffee. They have both put away their rugged clothes they worn as fugitives. Yuri is in his usual white dress shirt and something new around his neck. Victor finally is able to give him the present he had for Yuri all along, a thin electric blue tie, the same colour as the night sky just before a flash of lightning strikes from heaven to earth. Victor said Yuri's old blue tie needs to burnt.

Victor is back in his grey dress pants, and the jacket of his suit hangs behind him on his chair.

If the world is ending anyways, they might as well look good.

Yuri walks towards the kitchen to pick up another cup.

Suddenly Victor hears the sound of broken glass, he finds Yuri in front of the TV screen. His knuckles are white from his tight grip against the sink.

Victor reflexively pulls him close against his heart and holds Yuri with all his strength. He can almost hear the sound of Yuri's heart breaking.

Because on the flickering TV screening an video plays on repeat. A video of Yurio with a streak of blood running down the corner of his lips, and matted and dried dark blood at the back of the scalp with a silver collar around his neck, arms and legs.

Yuri only knows so well what the collars and shackles mean. He is too familiar with the way of the master, the masked figure who trained him to be the best mercenary the organization ever had. At the press of a button, each of those collars can trigger an explosion. The ones on his arms and ankles, has enough force not to kill its prisoners, but to make them bleed, not to the point where they will die, but enough to inflict unimaginable pain. The one around his neck is different. Once activated, it can trigger an explosion enough to flatten several city blocks. Yuri shudders as he clings desperately onto Victor's chest. He wishes that he could trade places with Yurio one thousand times over. Knowing his brother, he can guess what he tried to do.

Yurio must have tried to assassinate the master on his own.

"Katsuki, you have seven days. Hand over Nikiforov and turn yourself in, or else I will start pressing a few buttons." the master's icy monotonous voice repeats over and over, Yuri feels as if he is being stabbed repeatedly.

Victor can feel Yuri tremble in his arms. He holds him a little tighter. They do not need words anymore.

Suddenly Victor pulls out his gun reflexivey, because he hears the door of the lab being pushed open. He presses Yuri's head against his neck projectively and points his gun towards the entrance.

Walking slowly towards them is a tall figure with dark hair and dark eyes, in one of his hands he carries a moving bundle that resembles a coat with leopard print, his other hand is empty. He appears no older than 19.

"Who are you?" Victor's blue-green eyes narrow, his weapon following the spot in between the dark eyes of their intruder.

"My name is Otabek Altin." His voice is calm. He holds his free hand up by his ear, "I am Yura's friend." The moving bundle rears its head, Howl finally escapes Otabek's grasp from being wrapped in Yura's coat. He sees Yuri and hisses, as usual, "and I came in peace."

Yuri believes him.

Because no ordinary person will make promises to take care of his brother's monstrous cat.

"Go on," The burning pain inside Yuri's chest persists.

Otabek is a man of few words, he reaches inside the pocket of his black coat and pulls out a ring. "Yura was prepared to sacrifice his life to bring this to you." His hand uncurls revealing the object Yuri revered, the raven ring, symbolizing the ultimate power of the organization. "Please accepts this, Mantis. You are the leader we have all been searching for."

Victor lowers his gun, keeping his arms firmly wrapped around Yuri's waist, refusing to let go.

Slowly Yuri reaches for the ring symbolizing the ultimate power of the organization on the cusps of two worlds. Victor steadies his hand as he slides it onto his right thumb.

 _Yuri, let's set things right._ Victor promises in his mind.

Otabek smiles a little, "Yakov told me when the time comes I would know." He pulls out a large ancient phone from his other pocket.

Victor gasps when he sees his old mentor's old cell phone he would not let go of. When he was Yakov's graduate student he tried time and time again to convince the old man to buy a new one.

Otabek throws it onto the ground with full force. The screen shatters, its old and faded black frame shatters with it. Inside the ancient phone is another, smaller device with a screen that does not appear like it is from this world. It is electric blue. Otabek picks it up and presses on the single button, waking it up from deep sleep.

Then a symbol appears that Victor is only too familiar. It is a triangle with one of its sides bolded. _Delta._ The same symbol that Yakov scrawled onto the back of the photo from back in Victor's graduate student days. The Greek letter meaning change.

Otabek taps onto it and hands the small rectangular device to Yuri, then he suddenly sinks to one knee and places one hand over his heart, "Master Katsuki, at your command."

Yuri's cannot seem to stop his pounding heart, as messages begin to appear on the screen before his eyes one by one.

Beep.

**Sara Crispino: I'm with you.**

Beep.

**Christopher Giacometti: At your service**

Beep. Beep.

**Leo de la Ignasia: standing by**

**Seung Gil Lee: commander**

Beep.

**Guang Hong Ji: with you.**

**Michele Crispino: we are with you**

**Emil Nekola: standing by**

**Phichit Chulanont: Sorry my friend, I should have told sooner. I believe in you...**

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

...

* * *

Kind of intense right?

Anyways,

1\. Fun fact, there is a real medical condition called essential tremor, which involves tremors of the hands and it gets better with alcohol (aka scene at the beginning of this chapter the scene with the scotch)...

2\. There are a lot of parallels between Otabek and Yuri, they are both kind deep down but had to kill and torture others for the organization and betraying their true selves. The difference between them is Otabek knows he is not cut out to be the leader.

3\. I thought in the original series the friendship between Yura and Beka was written so beautifully that if nothing romantic comes out of it I would be perfectly content. Am I the only one? As for where their relationship is heading in this story, my lips are sealed.

4\. Today is the first day of my vacation, I spent most of it with this story. And I am happy.

5\. As always, thank you! Some of your comments made my day, and I especially appreciated the constructive criticism.

xoxo

Antares


	11. Masquerade

"Even Master Altin couldn't get him to talk," Yura wakes up to someone's muffled voice outside of the door. "He passed out from the pain when Master Altin used his...usual method."

"Fine," he can hear the patience in the master's voice brewing thin, "sell him."

Yura freezes. _What does that mean?_ He shudders. He remembers the master's last few words to him _'I am going to make you beg me to press that button...and make you regret that you were ever born'_. There are things worse than death, he knows that. Like pain, being cut over and over again, given time to heal, then cut again. Or worse...stripped of all of his dignity.

The same two lackeys that Otabek sent away returns into his prison cell. Yura glares at them, his body still weak from the residual effect of the violet incense the Master lit paralyzing him. One of the masked guards shackles his ankles together, chained onto the shackle is a large metal sphere. The guard's nervous fingers avoid touching the silver bands of metal around his ankle. The master can blow up his arms and legs any time he wishes by pressing a button. Yura spits on the guard.

Enraged, the masked figure jumps up and swings his fist towards Yura's face, just before the impact, the other guard steps forwards to deflect the punch. "Stop it! We can't fuck up his face."

Growling, the guard delivers a blow in the stomach instead. Yura sees that coming and braces him myself for the impact. He knows, his training will not betray him. He knows how to receive punches, he tenses his muscles seconds before the impact. _Weakling..._ he grits his teeth.

The taller guard chains his hands together and tugs him roughly forwards to leave the tiny dark cell.

Yura loses sense of time, the tiny pill Beka put under his tongue had given him a few hours of peaceful dreamless sleep. He wonders if his friend found Yuri and Victor. He walks forwards dragging the large metal sphere between his feet. he does not know how long he has been walking for, down dark corridors deep inside the labyrinth within the organization at the back of the night club named the Eternal. The walls are ancient, like the sides of a castle. He knows he cannot return to Yuri's side like this. The collar around his neck, when activated can flatten a few miles surrounding it. He is determined not to give the master the satisfaction of watching him writhe with pain. He will never beg or bow to him, even if it kills him.

The atmosphere of the tunnel feels like a tomb, they descend several flights of stairs. Yura notices illuminating the dark corridors there are no longer lightbulbs, but candles. Neither him nor Yuri have been this far deep into the organization before.

One of the guards gives him a rough shove around the shoulder blades. His body still feels leaden and...wrong, after breathing into that dark violet incense lit by the master. He could never see the scent of lavender the same way again. He finds himself facing a pair of wooden door. Carved onto it is the image of the sun, the moon, and one million stars amidst the several rows of metal bolts. The door creaks open, Yura peers into pitch blackness inside.

Slowly a glass elevator ascends and there is a woman inside. She is wearing a red velvet Venetian mask covering her eyes, with a curtain of brown beads flowing from the bottom edge of the mask. She is wearing a simple yet elegant dark red dress perfectly fitting her form. Her light brown hair is pulled back into a high braid. She nods at the guards as the glass door of the elevator opens.

The guards shove Yura inside, the only sound is his chains rattling and the sound of the metal sphere dragging along the cold dark ground.

"Keys," the masked woman stretched out one hand.

One of the guards remove a key from the large ring buckled to his thick waist and gives it over reluctantly.

Yura feels his senses sharpen, _what if I knock her out, and take the keys._ He starts to play the possibilities in his head, which angle he would attack from, how to render her unconscious.

The round glass door of the elevator closes soundlessly before them, inside on the roof of the elevator is illuminated by a chandelier, with tiny crystals projecting light onto each side of its glass wall.

Yura awaits for his chance, clenching his teeth. He watches the few feet of darkness of the earth being illuminated by their sole source of light.

"Otabek has a message for you," the woman takes a drink from her water flask then hands it to Yura. She unfurls a piece of paper from her satchel. "If I wanted to kill you, I could have many times over by now," she adds. There is kindness in her voice. "My name is Yoko."

Yura takes a big gulp of the water, the sweet elixir of life. _She must be close to him_ , he deduces, to call him by his first name. Yura recalls Beka being the adapted heir to a powerful family of patrons.

He gazes down at the piece of paper before him. He's never seen Beka's handwriting before. The letters are big, bold and messy... _It suits him_.

**Yura -**

**Master Katsuki asked me to bring you to safety.**

**Your friend,**

**-B**

**P.S. Howl is a monster. Yuri agrees.**

Large drops of tears begin to pour out of his eyes, he commands them to stop, but they don't listen. He suddenly realizes how much he misses his brother. He feels like that dirty disheveled kid again, running barefoot on the streets of Brazil the first time he met Yuri. Another part of him cannot help but think of his friend, though their reunion is brief. _Beka, you found my brother...and he is now the leader of the organization._ Warmth swells from his stomach up to his chest, he can hardly breathe. He turns around facing away from Yoko, she understands he doesn't want her watching this one moment of weakness. Yura's palms slam into the glass of the elevator, he slides down against its side. _Beka, where were you all my life?_

He is glad Yoko didn't try to comfort him, but simply leaves him be.

She then takes out a lighter and sets the note on fire.

The elevator is decelerating and lights are coming closer and closer.

Yoko hands him a soft white handkerchief.

The elevator doors suddenly open.

Yura gasps.

"Welcome to the city of the Eternal." Yoko watches Yura's expression change with a slight smile. "I have to leave you soon, but Otabek will come for you, in the right way, at the right time."

There is an entire city teeming with life underground.

Yura watches as people dressed as aristocrats walk down the cobblestone streets. Yoko's appearance is not strange at all given the context of this place at all. This scene could be straight from a historical movie...Yura is still stunned. Of course, while the rest of the world dies of a disease caused by the virus this is the place where the patrons of the organization hide and wait. Once the old world dies, they will rise again, with their perfect children created by Project Genesis and live in the new world.

The city in the hollowed out earth is illuminated by lights so bright, it can be easily mistaken as daylight outside. From the ceiling there are projected images of drifting clouds. The Main Street has a market, except for the items the merchants are selling are luxurious to say the least. Fabrics with elaborate embroideries, furs, oddities like the complete skeleton of a bird, down to every tiny bone.

Yura bites the inside of his cheeks. How could these people enjoy themselves this way while the world above is dying. _Those sick fucks wants the world above to die._ He shudders as he thinks about his brother and Phichit working for people like these. He realizes what the organization really is, a tool, a weapon...

* * *

Otabek throws Yakov's old scarf onto his large four-poster bed, he hurriedly removes his black coat and his white shirt revealing defined muscles. As much as he hates admitting it, he is nervous. That is the mild way of putting it. The painfully honest way of describing how he feels right now is more like scared shitless. Otabek, the perfect soldier from the organization with the nickname Spider and an unsolicited talent for breaking prisoners sheds his skin to become the heir of one of the most powerful families in the New World.

He opens the door of his closet that spans from floor to the ceiling, on its door are elaborately carved patterns including the bear on his family crest. He was adopted by a family of the patrons three years ago when he was sixteen. He is still not used to the way of this world, the unnecessary extravagance he finds...disturbing. His parents though are kind, but distant at the same time.

He sighs as he buttons his white shirt with frills at the front. Then he puts on a grey vest matching his pants. Finally he drapes the white suit with elaborate grey shoulder patches and dark blue fleur-de-lis along each side of his chest.

He opens the other side of the closet revealing an entire wall filled with masks. Some elaborate with feathers and jewels, others plain with a single row of diamonds below the slits for the eyes. He is still not used to this world, despite being a part of it for three years. He thought about running away and to hell with all of this time and time again. But his mentor Yakov convinced him to stay, because _'someday he'll find something he would want to protect, and there is nobody but he can do it'._ He shakes off the pain of Yakov's recent death, it seems as if Yakov can predict the future...Yakov knows his position both within the organization and the New World is far too useful...

Several knocks later a shorter figure bursts through the door.

"Hey Minami," Otabek greets his visitor clad in red and gold matching the color of his hair a little flatly.

Minami can be annoying sometimes, but Otabek is truly grateful today he is coming along. Unlike himself, Minami belongs to the world of the patrons, he was created to be the perfect child: strong, handsome, and intelligent, before he was born his genes had been pre-selected by using the forbidden Project Genesis. But Minami belongs in the part of the patron world who do not believe in destroying the old world above and to create a new one. He is also Katsuki Yuri's biggest fan. He admired the deadly assassin since he first heard of him from Otabek, and how he saved the children, Otabek and included, from the human traffickers.

"You look sharp, Master Altin," Minami puts on his own mask with a beak on it with yellow and gold feathers.

"You look like a tropical bird," Otabek is slightly sarcastic. "Let's go." He puts on his white mask with dark blue etched around the eyes and several sapphire. He wipes his mildly sweaty palms onto the side of his grey pants matching his vest.

Anonymity is paramount in this world, especially in where they are heading.

* * *

_Are you fucking kidding me,_ Yura furls his eyebrows. After Yoko leaves a severe looking woman picks him up from his chin and forces his mouth open to check for cavities. She has hooked nose and hawk like eyes, her brown hair pulled up in a shiny bun.

"This one has potential, I suppose, though right now he is abysmal..." her voice matches her severe appearance.

 _Potential for what,_ Yura grips his fists tight making his knuckles white and his chains rattle. He feels clean and dirty at the same time, she dunks his head into cold water and scrubs with long talon like nails until all bits of dried blood caking his scalp comes clean. He wonders what the master means when he says to sell him. _To do what? To whom?_

The thin woman with a narrow face and hair in a high bun shoves him behind a set of dark red curtains, with one large key, she frees one of his hands, then tosses a white costume at him, "put this on yourself, or we'll do it for you."

Possibilities of escaping runs through his mind again as he plays the image of himself strangling her with the chains on his other hand and watching her eyes roll back while her face turns blue. But the darn chains on his feet and the large metal sphere will not budge. He suppose changing himself beats the indignity of being stripped by the likes of...her.

After he finishes putting on the ridiculous white costume the woman returns and somehow her expression softens when she gazes at him. She removes the elastic band pulling his blonde hair back letting those locks fall past his chin, she claps her hands together, "now that's beautiful. Drop that perpetually angry expression," she commands.

Yura folds his arms across his chest and narrows his eyes ignoring her. _This costume is fucking awful._ He looks down at himself. It is white, translucent with elaborate pieces radiating a pearly color scattered throughout reflecting every color of light. From the shoulders and arms, the extra fabric extends and flutters like angel feathers. This is as far from his character as possible.

The hawk-like woman others call Ms. Lilia places a firm hand on his shoulder and opens a set of wooden doors. Right before she leaves she whispers in his ear, "good luck out there, _Yurachka_."

 _She's with us..._ he realizes, _Beka, what exactly are you planning._ He touches his neck where the silver collar is with a groove down the middle and a single fuchsia light flashing. Inside that collar is enough explosives to flatten this place, and the master holds the trigger. He has similar but smaller manacles on his wrists and ankles as well. Suddenly the floor rises from beneath his feet, and every hair is standing on his body.

The platform stops rising, he finds himself inside a glass tube before an entire crowd of people in masks, except instead of stupid Halloween costumes, the shiny jewels studded on many feathered masks are real blood diamonds. His eyes has a difficult time adjusting to the myriads of colors, textures, the masquerade outside seems surreal. All of them carrying white metal disks that can project glowing red holographic symbols into the air. He taps the glass, they replaced his rusty black chains with elegant thin silvery ones, matching his costume. The cheering crowd in all directions sitting in the arena with Yura's stage at the bottom does not match the sound he is able to hear inside the glass tube. He feels as if he is stuck in a vacuum. For the first time he glances around at the stage. There are two girls that appears terrified next to him.

They are beautiful, in different ways, one appears innocent and pure. Her auburn hair falling down past her waist, her wide almond shaped blue eyes sad. She is wearing a shimmering purple gown, like gossamer, showing just the right amount of skin. And the other girl, who appears to be in her early twenties has dark and mysterious eyes, lined tastefully with feathers at the end of her lashes. Her dark dress as alluring, hugging her perfect figure.

Yura feels as if an elephant is sitting on his chest, he realizes what exactly is happening. This is an auction. And he is the prize.

* * *

Otabek didn't know his friend could look like this. He is glad that his mask is hiding his burning face. He turns on the tiny silvery disc that can project red letters and symbols into the air. A line written in red appears before him in midair, "select your symbol". He scrolls through the English alphabet subsequently into the Greek, and of course, he stops at the letter Delta.

He needs to win.

Because he does not like what plan B involves. Though prepared, he shudders to think about it. He aches when he thinks of what Yura must be thinking right now. Yuri warned him, knowing his brother's character, the less he knows, the better. He wanted to tell Yura badly through Yoko and Ms. Lilia. But he trusts Yuri. It took both him and Victor to convince Yuri not to come on his own. Because Yuri is the natural leader their rebel faction was missing since Yakov's death, and Otabek is meant to be the leader's right hand man, who whispers in his ear and does his bidding.

Auctions like this happen every week. Where people's lives are the price. Because everyone wears masks, nobody knows exactly where these lives go. There is a brothel where many of the pretty girls and handsome young men are rumoured to end up. No one knows who runs the brothel. Some 'fortunate ones' end up as slaves in the household. Others less fortunate can be sent to battles where slaves fight to the death while the patrons watch. People being auctioned usually come from the world above, Otabek suspects the organization has a part in this. There is no doubt the master sent someone to bid for his friend. And that someone will lead Yura to an unimaginably dark place. Otabek shudders. _What a sick and fucked up world,_ it still makes his skin crawl thinking that he belongs with them. That they possess the most advanced technology, and that they stand at the pinnacle of civilization, yet they revert back to slavery.

"Let's get started -" a masked woman in a red suit is running the auction today.

Otabek feels cold sweat soaking through his back. He loses the sense of time as the other two girls are being auctioned and the crowd cheering when the deal is finally sealed. He sees the girls' terrifying eyes as the platform lowers back into the darkness. He says a little prayer for them, hoping it's not the brothel they are going. _I will ends this,_ he silently promises.

Finally it's Yura's turn.

"Starting at one hundred thousand," their currency is different from the world above. The masked woman in the red suit begins.

Then various symbols are projected into the dark air above them from the potential bidders. Otabek's small red Delta blending in amongst the sea of red.

"Two hundred thousand," no change in the dancing sea of red.

"Five hundred." No change.

"One million." No sign of change.

"Two."

Otabek glances at his friend inside his glass prison. He looks...beautiful. He is standing tall, without any fear in those brilliant green eyes, but they are filled with dignity and defiance...

"Twenty million." Less and less red symbols remain in the air. That is a hefty price, even for a noble like Otabek, he can hardly breathe.

"Thirty."

Otabek has never seen prices this high before. The crowd is going crazy with cheers.

"Fifty."

Otabek feels a little lightheaded.

There are only about five red letters remaining.

"Seventy. Looks like we have a new record."

Otabek is thinking from here on he would need to start selling the robots that he designs as a hobby. _Damn, Yura, you are expensive..._ his own red letter begin to flicker as a row of red letters begin to orbit around the disappearing Delta symbol stating 'insufficient funds'. He grips onto the disk tightly.

Two more glowing red letters remain.

From the other side the red Epsilon is not diminishing or going anywhere.

Minami senses his tension and taps him on the shoulder.

Otabek's heart almost leaps out of his chest as the fourteen year old next to him pulls out another silver disk. "Ms. Lilia insists that I take this." Otabek wants to kiss him. Minami hands him another silver disk. Gingerly, Otabek scrolls through the English alphabet into the Greek, stopping at the 4th letter. With two silver disks stacked together, the letter Delta glows stronger than ever, until they are the only letter left.

Otabek lets out a sign of relief at last.

They won.

* * *

The platform lowers him back into the darkness. The first person he greets is Ms. Lilia.

She wraps a long black coat around him and pulls him suddenly for a hug. "Thank goodness." Swiftly she unlocks all of the chains around his ankles and wrists.

Yura's heart races, he cannot help but grow more attached to the woman who initially appears hawk-like but now there is new softness in her features. _Is it really over?_

Ms. Lilia puts the hood of the long black coat over his head, "this way." She pulls his wrist gently towards the darkness at the back of the stage.

A wooden door creaks open, Yura suddenly starts to grin from ear to ear as Beka waits for him on his motorbike outside, on the cobblestone street in the mysterious and cruel underground city of the patrons.

Otabek hands Ms. Lilia a bundle containing his mask and ridiculous clothes, "burn these."

She nods.

"And thank you," he cannot express in words his gratitude for the older woman. The official story was she and Yakov were divorced, but they remained close, even up to days leading to his death. Beka suspects they love each other still.

He hands Yura a helmet, "let's go." His usual stoic expression breaks into a small smile in the dim simulated night. In this city, unless examining the sky closely, it is difficult to tell that this truly is underground. The lights on top simulates the night and day perfectly down to the projected stars and the moon.

Otabek's heart races a little as he feels Yura's face pressing against his back, and his hand gripping tightly along his waist. He steps onto the gas pedal and lets the familiar wind rush through his face and his body. He imagines Yura's beautiful golden locks flying in the wind behind him.

* * *

_Beka's bathtub is ridiculously huge._ Yura suddenly feels the fatigue of the past twenty four hours catching up to him. His entire body aches. Beka closes the door behind him leaving a pile of clothes.

Yura peels off his white costume, Ms. Lilia thought it was beautiful, he rolls his eyes. That costume is as unlike him as it can get. He steps into the bathtub the size of a swimming pool made from smooth cobblestone like the ones paving the streets. He lets the warm water envelope him. He dunks his head under, blowing a few bubbles from his lips and letting his golden locks float freely while the water around his ears make gurgling sounds. This is the most free he feels for a long time. He is naked except for the silver collar around his neck, wrists and ankles, which the master can trigger at any moment. The explosion has enough power to flatten several city blocks. But he is safe here, the master instructed for him to be sold to a place where he will ' _regret that he will be ever born'_. But he is just a little freer, thanks to his friend. _'You were expensive'_ , according to Beka. _'No shit'_ , Yura responded.

He floats to the edge and reaches for a simple blue bar of soap. He inhales its scent deeply, it smells like mint. _That's what he smells like..._

Yura feels his eyes stinging all of a sudden, because the scent of mint reminds him of the scent of the tea Yuri and him used to make at the cabin. There is a small patch of mint that grows every summer. _Stop it._ He commands himself.

He finished his bath and buttons Beka's white shirt that is a little too large for him and pull on the pair of shorts that goes past his knees.

Even his room is massive. He finds Beka sitting at his desk, with a box open filled with tiny tools, including some he has never seen before. He is fiddling with the wings of a mechanical bird.

"You built that?" Yura takes a few steps closer.

"Yea, it's a hobby," Beka imagines again what he would do if he is perfectly ordinary, if the organization and this mad world does not exist. He would be an engineer. "It's programming still has a few glitches." He scratches his head and sets the owl on its legs. It stands a feet tall, its mechanical wings glistening. He presses a button behind its neck.

Yura's jaw drops, the bird begins to take flight, making circles around the room with the high ceilings, around Beka's large four poster bed, and finally back to the spot where Beka left it. _Amazing..._

"You must be tired, we'll remove the collars tomorrow," Beka sees the dark bags under his friend's eyes. "It'll take some time, but you are safe here, the master would not set off the trigger now because he would be responsible for killing a dozen patrons."

Yura takes a few steps forwards suddenly and wraps his arms around him, pressing his head against his firm chest, "thank you, I mean it."

Otabek hopes Yura does not hear how fast his heart is beating. Gingerly he wraps his hand around his head, his blonde locks are still wet. He loves the color of his hair, so brilliant like the color of the morning star, like a beacon of hope that gave him a reason to live when they were kidnapped as children and trapped in a shipping container. _I would do anything for you._ He is a man of a few words and says nothing. "Let's go to sleep."

Yura curls up into bed next to him his back pressing against his. "Beka, you remember we used to sleep like this?"

"Yea," Otabek leans into his friend's warmth. When they were trafficked, before Yuri saved them. They used to sleep next to each other on the cold floor of the shipping container with their backs pressed against each other. They didn't speak the same language back then. The other children became more and more withdrawn as if giving up, but they kept on fighting until Yuri set them free. They were each other's reason to live.

Yura turns around and presses his forehead and nose against his back, and with one hand he pulls the fabric along his waist. "Where were you all this time?"

Otabek feels heat rising in his face and a twisting sensation he could not describe rising in his stomach. "I'm sorry." He was living a double life with one foot in the darkness and one foot standing in the light. He is a part of Yakov's faction within the organization that is awaiting for it to burn, at same time he is the heir, adopted into the family of patrons, the very world they are trying to destroy. _I'll make it up to you Yura, with the rest of my life, if you'd let me._ He turns around and runs his fingers through those beautiful golden locks. He presses Yura's head against his chest, his nose inches from his friend's forehead.

"You are not leaving again," Yura grips tightly onto the front of his shirt.

Beka nods. _I would do anything for you._ He cannot pin down his feelings for Yura, but he knows, there is something deeper than friendship alone. _Even if we remain friends for the rest of our lives, that's...good enough for me._

* * *

Thank you for the kudos, the kind comments, and support!

We are coming close to the end, though I am sad to part with this story, I am also excited for my next story (Demon Song). I was writing it at night on a balcony in Hawaii while on vacation, there's no light pollution where I am staying at, only the ocean and the stars..and it was beautiful.

Let me know your thoughts!

xoxo

Antares

P.S. Brace yourself for the next chapter.

P.P.S. This story has a happy ending. Believe me. 


	12. Morning Star

Phichit isn't sure how long phones will still work, he is surprised that his lasts this long since the world is falling into piece from the deadly virus. After he listens to the last message JJ, his long time rival neurosurgeon trainee, then his phone no longer works. The message says, "listen, I am...sorry for what I did, can you please answer so that I know you are alright?'

_He sounds...vulnerable._

There is also sounds of children in the background.

Phichit has been competing with JJ for as long as he can remember, for the past grueling six years of being a trainee to become a full fledged neurosurgeon. They both have one year to go but before that the world went to shit. The world of medical training can sometimes be equivalent to modern slavery. It's a rite of passage. Older doctors always chuckle and say _"in my days I had it so much worse."_

He still remembers the last time they saw each other. JJ agreed to help with save Yuri, by operating on him to remove the bullet in his back, without asking questions. That was when he changed the contact on his phone from "Brownoser Leroy" to finally his real name. And right before they parted, he cannot forget the way his obnoxious rival suddenly kissed him.

The cynical part of him, a product of medical training, is secretly smug about making JJ suffer a little by ignoring his calls. But there is another side of him that is growing more and more curious. He wonders how long exactly JJ had feelings for him? Why he was too thick to notice? Maybe there is something different beneath that overly confident and annoyingly cheerful rival.

Phichit sighs deeply. For the past two days he has been meeting with Yuri, the new leader of the organization, on the plans for the final battle, to end the old ways of the organization once and for all. _There is a chance that I may not come back alive._ He brings himself up to date with the reality. Being a part of the organization, he is mentally prepared for death at any given moment. It is common. Most of the mercenaries within the organization do not live past the age of 30. He has been away from combat for six years now because the master forbids him to. He needs to protect his hands. He was a formidable fighter, not as good as Yuri, of course, and he is prepared to fight again. _I should at least say goodbye...in case I don't make it._

He pulls on his coat, despite the fact he despised JJ for the past six years, he knows him well. He knows where JJ would be right now.

* * *

Victor has been busy in his lab, and he is glad Chris is there to help. Chris is from the organization, and he knows Yuri for a number of years. There is natural charisma about him. Amidst the chaos of them figuring out a cure and Yuri meeting with the others to plan for the final battle to take down the organization from within once and for all, Chris can still laugh, he seems unfazed, yet his focus stays razor sharp.

Chris is helping him grow the bacteria that can potentially carry the right genes to make the antibodies to fight the virus.

Meanwhile Yuri, Phichit, Sara, and the others are in deep discussion for hours at a time.

Victor knows Yuri is trying to keep himself busy all the time, and he is breaking from the inside and he cannot let it show. Because it has only been a few days since becoming the new leader of the organization. It hurts Victor to see Yuri in such pain and the sleepless nights where Yuri could do nothing but to desperately cling onto Victor's bare chest. Victor says nothing but hold him and softly kiss every inch of him. They do not need words anymore. Victor can see the dark circles appearing under his eyes.

Yuri doesn't know how to cry. He hasn't since he was ten years old. He has forgotten how. The master ingrained in him that tears are for the weak. When everyone is gone Victor watches Yuri practice with his sword. He is stunned by the grace and silent deadliness in the way Yuri moves. Victor thought he is the most beautiful person in the world. True to his nickname in organization, as the most feared assassin with the silver sword: the Mantis. Victor watches his breathing slow down a little as he receives the message in the middle of the night that Yurio is safe with Otabek, and that he will try to remove the collar that the master placed around Yurio's neck containing enough explosives to flatten a few city blocks.

He has 7 days, it has been the longest three days of Yuri's life. In four days the master demands for him to exchange Victor's life for his brother's. By now the master must know that his ring is missing, that ring on Yuri's right thumb with the crow symbolizes the ultimate power in the organization between the cusp of two worlds. Yuri always thought it was Medieval that the members of the organization must obey its owner. Yurio went to steal it for him on his own but failed, and Otabek delivered it to him instead, along with the secret faction within the organization that Yakov built in order to protect the rest of the world.

* * *

Phichit enters the five digit code to the call room he is only too familiar with, he does not remember the numbers anymore, but his hand remembers exactly where to press. He hears the sound of children's laughter from the inside.

The call room still looks the same inside the hospital which Phichit spent most of his life within. That ratty old brown couch is still the same. Good thing it is brown because it hides the coffee stains. This is the room they sleep in during the night and work out of on occasion during the day.

"Phichit!" JJ puts down the children's book and leaps up from the bed, his blue-grey eyes lights up. Sitting next to him a little boy who appears to be three years old, gazes up at the newcomer with wide brown eyes. There is another girl with dark hair in two pigtails also next to JJ.

Phichit blushes a little, "hey." _What are you thinking_ , he is furious with himself, _stop it._ He is having flashbacks of the kiss again. _Not here, in front of the kids._ The more he tries to stop thinking about it, the more heat rises from his face. _He's been rescuing...kids._ Suddenly he feels petty, after 6 years of hating JJ, here he stands before him, taking care of orphans when the rest of the world disappears only thinking of themselves.

"JJ will be right back," he zips up his red sweater with the maple leaf on it, nods at Phichit and they head down the sterile white hallway they are only too familiar with. The atmosphere feels strange, vacuum like, the hospital lies abandoned.

Phichit knows this is where JJ would be because he figures people fear of getting infected with the virus, so they would not come close to the hospital. Also, all of the training doctors know the password for the nurses pantries, where there are crackers, juice and water enough to last for days.

They walk silently side by side into the operating room area. They feel strange entering the operating room without putting the blue covers on their shoes and their scrub caps - Phichit's has a raging hamster on his, and JJ's has maple leaves on it. "Celestino would lose his shit if he sees us here without proper OR attire." Phichit chuckles.

JJ laughs back.

They sit down next to each other at the nursing station.

"Listen," JJ begins, sitting a few feet from him, "I'm...sorry, I had to gather all my courage to do what I did the other day."

Phichit is in shock with how sincere his former rival sounds at this moment in time. _JJ hung his big ego outside of the door for once._ Phichit does not respond.

"I wanted to do that for a long time," JJ leans closer to him.

Phichit is painfully aware of the warmth radiating from JJ's body, "I thought you hated me, remember those times we would fight for the OR cases?" He interlaces his hands together, his palms slightly sweaty.

JJ scratches his head, and touches his neck afterwards, embarrassed, "truthfully, Chulanot, I was...envious." JJ's blue-grey eyes finds its way to the floor, "I...look up to you, and every day I worked hard to catch up to you."

"Me?" Phichit responds stiffly in disbelief. _What is special about me anyways? I am a workaholic, my social life is abysmal, I replace my blood with caffeine...oh and I work for a fucked up organization, but that's another story._

JJ nods, "your patients love you, you are kind, even though you rage behind closed doors, the way you operate, the speed and precision, the way your patients talk about you afterwards...you really are something else."

It's now Phichit's turn to blush a little and look away. "Well, you had a funny way of showing it."

JJ grins and shrugs, "maybe I do...like this analogy...have you ever been told this as a little kid: when a girl is mean to you in the playground, sometimes, it means that she likes you?"

Phichit bursts out laughing, "first time I heard that one." He continues to laugh for some reason. They are no longer rivals, years of calling JJ a dipshit in his head has finally come to an end.

JJ laughs with him.

Phichit is going to stand by Yuri in the final battle against the organization that brought all of this chaos to the world by unleashing the virus. The organization is controlled by the rich and powerful patrons for eons, who are waiting underground in the City of the Eternal for the world above to perish so they can emerge with their 'perfect' children, created by Project Genesis, selected for beauty, power and intelligence. Phichit isn't sure if he will live past tomorrow.

"Do you think we'll be real neurosurgeons one day?" JJ asks, noticing Phichit's serious expression again, "that there will be a cure or the epidemic spontaneously ends, and that the world will go back to the way it was?"

Phichit pictures at this moment Victor in his head working in his lab, pipetting away. Victor's parents created Project Genesis alongside Yakov, when they realized their project is too dangerous Victor's parents packed up their lives and moved to a small town, but the organization killed them in the end. They died in a fire, was the official story. Yakov agreed to co-operate with the organization in exchange for Victor's life. Yakov's intelligence is too valuable to be expendable. But at the end they killed him too. Yakov watched over Victor from the shadows for years before taking him under his wing as a graduate student. And now there is Victor, too brilliant for his own good created Project Delta, which manipulates genes freely after birth, while Project Genesis does before birth. _I hope he figures out the cure soon,_ Phichit silently prays. Returning from his train of thought, Phichit firmly nods, "yes, I have a feeling, one day we will be neurosurgeons again."

"Well," JJ's face is slightly flushed, his demeanor different from his usual confident one, "if the world goes back to the way it was...will you give me a chance?"

Phichit's heart begins to race, he decides to make JJ suffer, just a little. He walks towards him, leans forwards until their lips are almost touching, his hair brushes against JJ's cheek.

JJ cannot hold back his smile and begin to close his eyes anticipating a kiss.

Right before their lips meet, Phichit pulls back, "dinner, maybe." He smirks and takes a step back. He knows that almost kiss is probably killing JJ. He did it on purpose.

"Hey..." JJ protests, "you -"

"See you on the other side," Phichit gives him a charming smile and begins to walk away. For some reason he feels happier than he has been in days. _See you on the other side, maybe we will someday operate side by side again, as real neurosurgeons. If I make it out alive._

* * *

When Yura wakes up inside Otabek's large four poster bed, his friend is already gone. Yura sits up and rubs his eyes. Otabek's room in the underground world of the patrons is huge, with high ceilings. His stomach makes a growling noise. He leaves the large bedroom and pushes open an elaborate wooden door with the a ferocious bear carved onto it.

The next room has a stark contrast to this medieval-like world. Yura finds Otabek with a metal mask on at his workbench. Otabek has a rod like tool in his hand, looks like he is welding two metal pieces together, small golden sparks fly from the tip. Scattered along his workbench are wires, circuit boards, propellers. His robotic owl sits on the bookshelf along with other animals, spiders, there is even a praying mantis. His friend has a fascinating hobby.

Yura glances along the room, there is a motorcycle against one wall, with a black helmet hanging off its handle. _This suits him,_ Yura thinks to himself.

Otabek notices that he is awake, he lifts his mask and smiles. "You must be hungry," he tosses him a paper bag that is still still warm and watches his friend's face behind his golden mane light up.

He reads Yura's mind, Yura grins from ear to ear as he opens the bag finding pirozhkis inside.

"Your brother says you love these," Otabek smiles back and takes a few steps forwards, and reaches for one for himself.

A wave of happiness rushes through Yura as he wolfs down the pirozhkis. Here he is, in the strange city of the patrons, with enough explosive power on the silver collar around his neck to flatten a few city blocks. But he is reunited with Beka, his old friend. If today is the last day he has to live, he is happy. His only regret is not to be able to be with his sworn brother Yuri.

"Let's get those collars off you, I was practicing all night," Beka begins, he knows it will be tricky, one wrong move everything will be over, but he has to try. Because the next day is the 7th day and Yuri's deadline.

The master will meet Yuri to exchange his brother's life for Victor's. The organization wants Victor to take over Yakov's place, in creating more perfect children for the patrons in the New World awaiting to rise. And Otabek remembers the fire in Yuri's eyes and his determination that he will not lose neither Yura nor Victor.

The next day is also when Yuri will destroy the organization from its core. Yakov had been planning for that day for years. He was the link to the members of the organization that wants peace with the rest of the world. Since he passed away Otabek became their rebel faction's secret keeper. He knows he is not cut out to be the leader. He is stoic, and actually shy, and he is not sure how to motivate anyone. And he remembers Yakov's almost prophetic words about the future leader of their faction who will bring them out of the darkness, _'one day, when the right person appears at the right time, you will know.'_

Otabek has no doubt in his mind, that Katsuki Yuri is the one.

Yura lies in his stomach without his shirt on Otabek's workbench.

Otabek is suddenly more aware of him for some reason, maybe it is because of his nakedness. He brushes away the golden locks exposing the collar on his friend's neck with gentle hands.

Yura's neck is still throbbing from the site where the master implanted the chip, as his initiation in the organization. Yura did not expect to be initiated this way. The chip, is a symbol of power within the organization, is something he always wanted. He works hard in combat so he can catch up to his brother, and to be sent on missions. The chip can transmit location, call for help, and during dire situations, allow the death function to be activated by its owner. No one ever told him how to activate the death function exactly. He isn't sure the reason the master gave him the chip and the silver collar. Only the powerful soldiers within the organization has the prize of having the chip. His brother had always been reluctant in his involvement with the organization, but Yura does not listen.

Otabek's thick eyebrows furl with concentration. The blueprint of the inside of the collar on a screen before him. Emil, one of their informants transmitted it to him last night. "I am going in. Yura, stay still."

"I trust you," Yura holds his breathes to stay deathly still.

He hears Beka putting his mask on from its hinges and pick up the long rod from earlier. He practiced the path to cut through the architecture of the collar many times, he can almost do it with his eyes closed. With steady hands the first fiery line appears on the background of silver. He knows, one wrong move they will both be blown up into smithereens.

Time seem to blend together, minutes feel like hours and days. Otabek's hand is steady, he does not dare breathe as his tool sending sparks heating the air. His heart races, he does not stop. He can feel the perspiration on his forehead and the Yura's heartbeats through his bare back. Layer by layer, he moves in deeper.

Until he lets out a sigh of relief, when he finally reaches the tiny chamber containing the explosive's core. He puts his tool down and removes his mask. "Yura, this is the last part," he can see Yura's white knuckles from gripping the edge of his workbench.

Beka reaches for a pair of forceps and pulls the tiny black capsule from its chamber. Technology in the world below is in an unfathomable place in comparison to the world above. He lowers his metal mask again and changes the setting on his long tool. Sparks flies in the air as Otabek mends the pieces of Yura's collar, as if it isn't cut open in the first place. He does the same with the silver rings on Yura's wrists and ankles.

"Now, let's get you back to your brother first thing tomorrow," Beka walks over and picks up the robot owl he built that he showed Yura the night before. He opens the tiny compartment over the metal bird's heart and places the capsule inside.

Yura props himself up and flashes him the most beautiful smile that makes Beka suddenly look away with heat rising in his face.

"Did you...plan everything?" Yura's green eyes meet his dark ones.

"Yes." Otabek knows he has to find a way to bring Yura to his workshop to remove the explosives in his collar. And to have a excuse to bring him to the world below, he planted the idea of selling Yura at the auction into the master's mind. He also knows that as long as Yura is underground, he is safe and the master will not press on the trigger because he does not want to be responsible for the lives to patrons.

They spend the rest of the day like ordinary people. Otabek shows Yura his workshop and the autonomous robots he builds as a hobby. Some day he hopes his robots can be sent to remote areas for the purposes of rescue missions. They talk and laugh as if not a day passed since when they parted five years ago.

_If I die tomorrow, I am glad that I spent my last day with you, Beka._ Yura silently whispers in his mind.

* * *

Victor hears the door of the lab shut behind them as Chris leaves.

They are finally alone.

Yuri's jaw relax as he reads the message from the blue device that Otabek had given to him that used to reside inside Yakov's old phone. "My brother is safe, he removed the explosives."

Victor smiles and wraps one arm around his waist and one arm around his head. "Let's go watch the sunset."

Yuri says nothing and follows him outside. The fatigue is catching up to him. In the span of short three days, he learnt about the entire operation that Yakov had been preparing since the beginning. His secret network within the organization has over 300 people. He has weapons, bulletproof vests, vehicles prepared for escape, communication devices on an entire different frequency like the one he has in his hands, and anything he can think of. Yuri is suddenly thrust into the position of the leader of a rebellion, and the last hope for the old world dying from a virus the organization unleashed.

Victor sits next to him on the wooden bench Mila made on her own on the rooftop of his lab. He feels a sharp pain in his chest when the picture of girl with fiery hair and bellflower eyes lying in a pool of blood flashes before his eyes. _Mila,_ he silently promises, _tomorrow we will make things right._ The organization is responsible for her life. Victor clenches his teeth.

The setting sun paints the sky orange.

This might be their last sunset together. Tomorrow, everything can be different, maybe it will be the end of the world as they know it. The city below is as silent and empty as ever. There is no sound of cars, no teenagers walking in a group raucously, or the occasional sound of the siren changing its pitch as it accelerates away, no sounds of construction, of children in the playground, of buses announcing its stop. Only dead silence.

Yuri leans his head against Victor's shoulder, interlacing his fingers between Victor's long and slender ones. The weather is unusually warm this march, there are no more snow on the ground below. Soon there will be hints of spring. They are not sure if they will be around to see it.

Victor kisses the top of his head, and wraps an arm protectively around him. Yuri feels safe. He is usually the one protecting others, looking out for his brother, but leaning against Victor's rock solid body, he feels home. He strokes Victor's beautiful hair the color of starlight now painted orange by the dying sun, relishing its softness against his fingers.

"You remember that time we were drinking warm wine up here," Yuri glances up at him, "when you told me the story about the elephant, and you asked me what I am not good at?"

"Of course I remember that night, you learned to dance rather quickly," Victor buries his face into Yuri's dark hair, "you said you are not good at starting conversations...and dancing." He remembers every detail because that's the night he realized he had fallen too deep, "You have no idea how much I wanted you that night."

"I know, I craved for you too," Yuri breaks into a tired smile, "well...the truth is...I lied."

Victor pauses all of a sudden. "You didn't -"

Yuri stands up with the most beautiful smile Victor has ever seen, and stretches out an inviting hand. "Shall we?" He has been fantasizing about this moment for a long time. Yuri can damn right dance. He is better than an expert. For a previous mission, Yuri needed to approach a high profile client, he learned every type of dance in order for her to notice.

Victor's face lights up like the first rays of the dawn.

Yuri grins and takes his hand. He begins to lead Victor across the roof. The last time they danced Victor was the one leading, while Yuri pretended to be uncoordinated because that fits his character better. But since they spoke their wedding vows, Yuri promised to undo all of his lies that he told.

Momentarily, they are able to forget that they are perhaps the last hope of this dying world, and that tomorrow either of them can die, the rebellion can fail. But for now, they are in a microcosm where only the two of them exist.

They dance the passionate flamenco, in perfect rhythm, Yuri twirls Victor and catches him by his narrow hips and dips his mid back with one arm, their noses inches apart.

Finally, panting, they sit next to each other on the ground.

"Yuri, you...liar," Victor narrows his eyes filled with laughter and pushes Yuri's shoulder playfully until Yuri's is pinned to the ground while still trying to catch his breath.

"I was a _professional liar_ you know," Yuri's laughter echoes his, his face slightly flushing.

Their eyes meet, and suddenly Yuri grabs Victor's tie and pulls him down to the ground when he least expects it, Victor lies on top of him their lips are inches apart.

"Why you -" Victor pretends to glare at him through those long beautiful lashes.

Yuri's tight grip is still on his tie, and he slowly pulls Victor until his ear is right next to his lips, "make love to me." Yuri whispers, as if it is a command, then he nibbles on Victor's ear.

Victor seals his lips with a kiss. "As you wish...Master Katsuki," on his lips a tiny smirk, as if mocking the world of the patrons and the organization.

Tomorrow can wait. Tonight is theirs.

Yuri continues to pull on his black tie until it unravel and tossed it next to them. Victor lifts the bottom of Yuri's black shirt revealing his toned stomach and chest as he helps him out of it. They do not care if they are outside or that maybe people can hear them. The whole world can listen to them if they want.

They lie in a tangle of their clothes on the roof painted by the orange light of the dying sun.

Victor's body quivers as Yuri passionately yet gently glides forwards until they are as close as two human beings can ever be, Victor's one hand tightens around Yuri's interlaced fingers, the other digs into the skin on Yuri's back making red marks.

Their first time was gentle and slow, this time there is a sense of burning desperation running through both of them, they are moving faster. Yuri kisses Victor's neck until he leaves his mark, yet he lovingly whispers, "tell me if I am hurting you and I'll stop."

"No," Victor wants to feel every bit of pain of the sweet rapture, because he never wants to forget this night. "Please don't stop..." he welcomes that pain to make his body remember the shape of Yuri, the way every line of his body feels. He bites his own lip with each wave of pain, as Yuri parts his lips with his tongue.

They have no idea how much time passed, wishing that time would stop. They lie next to each other, catching their breaths, while gazing at the starry sky, untainted by the non-existing city lights.

Victor strokes Yuri's cheek, "I will protect you tomorrow, I will become your weapon and your shield, I will never let you kill again." _Yuri, believe in me._

Yuri takes his hand and kisses his ring, "Victor, I love you." He can see the tears glistening from those blue-green eyes. This is the first time he said those words out loud. They don't need words anymore, every action, every touch speaks those three words.

"I love you too, Yuri," his lips meet Yuri's softly, "more than life itself."

* * *

Sara ties a high ponytail a blue ribbon into her long chestnut hair, like a warrior princess. With a ripping motion she adjusts the Velcro in its right place. She polishes the shaft of her sniper rifle and peers through its lens. Her skills are unparalleled.

Phichit straps on a belt with a few guns tucked onto it. He pulls out his surgeon's scrub cap from his pocket and grips it tightly against his heart. _One day, after all of this is over, I can return to the operating room again...maybe with JJ by my side._ He quickly pushes that last thought away. He tucks the cap into his right breast pocket for good measure.

Chris unwraps his midnight blue scarf and unbuttons his coat to make room for his bullet proof vest.

Next to him, a man of few words with the usual stoic face and dark hair named Seung Gil feels a little out of place wearing blue, because he only wears grey and black but Emil insists.

Emil colored his hair electric blue, even with the tension running high before the dawn of the final battle, he can still smile. He picks up a gun and tucks it into his waist.

Guang Hong begins to wrap his hands with blue bands, he specializes in close range combat, he will be accompanying Victor and Yuri to meet the master.

Yuri buttons his white shirt over the bullet proof vest, and Victor ties the knot of the electric blue tie that he gave to Yuri as a gift after telling him to burn his old fashioned one.

Victor looks stunning in his usual grey suit, as always.

Yuri and Victor's eyes meet, Yuri nods, with pure determination in his dark eyes. They know the master will bring those faithful to only him. They know it will be a bloodbath out there and that not all of them will come back alive.

_Let's end this._

* * *

Otabek hands Yura a black helmet and once again Yura sits at the back of his motorcycle with wind in his golden locks. They ride on a torturous cobblestone street of the secret City of the Eternal underground to head to another location with the elevator connected to the world above. Yura wraps one arm around Beka's waist his fingers clinging tightly, in his other arm the robot owl that contains the explosive capsule that was once inside his neck.

* * *

Their rendezvous point is on a rooftop of the biggest hospital overlooking the city.

Victor, Yuri, Guang Hong and Phichit watches as a black helicopter approach from a distance. There is no doubt the master will bring others with him. Michele confirms there are movement from the surrounding area into Yuri's earpiece.

Suddenly the door leading to the ceiling opens and Yuri turns around sharply. Victor watches his face light up as he begins to walk and speeds up his pace in the direction of his sworn brother.

Yura leaps into his arms, his golden locks flying before him, "Yuri!"

Yuri does not say anything but wrap his arms around him tightly, like the time when they first met where Yura ran barefoot on the streets of Brazil and refused to leave even when Yuri tried to shoo him away and bribe him with money, at the end Yuri pulled him into an embrace.

Yuri nods at the man with dark hair behind Yura with a small smile, "Otabek, thank you...I mean it."

Otabek nod back, then he releases the robotic owl, it's mechanical wings reflecting the light of the stars above as it takes flight and disappears into the night sky.

"Sorry Yuri...I fucked up," Yura buries his face in his brother's chest near the knot of his blue tie.

Yuri runs ruffles his hand through his hair, the way he always did, and he is the only one who Yura allows to do that, "you have no idea how worried I was, and what you put me through Yurio," Yuri keeps is arm around his brother's shoulder as they watch the helicopter begin to land, "thank goodness you are safe, I am...glad."

Yura knows his brother doesn't know how to cry, but if he did he would have tears in his eyes at this very moment. He grips Yuri's white shirt tightly.

"Let's end this." Yuri's grip tightens on his bother's shoulder.

With wind in their hair, they watch the helicopter land over the large H sign within the giant red circle.

They watch as the helicopter's door opens, revealing the six foot tower of a man in the plain white mask slowly descending from the ladder. Nobody knows his face. Anonymity is paramount in the world of the patrons. Yuri is now face to face with the man who taught him everything except for love. He taught him how to lie, how to kill without making a mess, he sent him to the best schools where Yuri learns at one tenth the speed of an ordinary person. He used him, moulded him into anything he wanted him to be, he made him the perfect solider. Behind him, five more heavily armed guards also descends. Their faces half covered with black masks.

"Mantis," The tall masked man with white hair flying in the wind takes a few mores steps closer, "I had high hopes for you," His voice cold. The sound of the helicopter propeller slowing down behind him, "you disappointed me," his speech is calm, calculating, "You were the best one."

A gun fires somewhere below.

"The Mantis is dead. You released the virus, you killed countless lives," Yuri's dark eyes narrow, he reaches for his gun tucked at his waist, "it ends here."

The five guards behind the Master point their rifles at them, like an execution squad.

"You are suppose to be nothing but a tool, Yuri," the master continues, his trench coat the same color as the darkest night, a stark contrast from his white mask, "you are questionably even human, I asked them to create you with Genesis during its experimental stages. That's all you are, a failed experiment, an afterthought, a few scrapped genes glued together inside a test tube."

Victor's arm around Yuri's shoulder tightens.

"You are wrong," Yuri's tips his chin up in defiance, "I am more human than you ever will be."

Silence.

The sky is still wearing the cloak of the night, the stars bright because the city below is dead.

"Hand over Nikiforov," the master cold blue eyes meet Yurio's forest green ones. He pulls out a small silvery device from his breast pocket, the same color as the collars that Yurio is still wearing, "or you _know_ what happens." He implies that he could first active the rings on Yurio's ankles and wrists first, breaking them one at a time.

Victor does not let go of his arm around Yuri's shoulder, his cold fingertips of his other hand closes in around the handle of Yakov's old gun. Otabek presses a button inside of his pocket sending a signal to the rest.

"Take a look around you," Yuri steps forward. They begin to hear footsteps surround them.

Yakov's army begin to fill up the rooftop, in the dim morning light all of them has on them, something blue.

Yuri knows that they are outnumbered, he has three hundred people while he does not want to think how many the master brings with him this morning.

The master's eyes flicker as he notices the red laser of Sara's sniper rifle pointing straight at his heart.

Yuri knows he cannot simply ask Sara to pull the trigger, because even if they kill him, the rest of the organization will swoop in and all are lost.

"Do you really think that I came only with these five fools?" The master mocks him.

"Of course not, of all things you taught me," Yuri takes a few mores steps closer unafraid. The guards behind the master point their guns at him, "anticipate your enemy's every move, is amongst the first."

"You are all going to die today, so say your goodbyes now," the master snaps his finger into the air.

Down below bullets being to fire. The two forces have engaged. Of course, as Yuri anticipated, the master has many more soldiers from the organization than he does. His fingertips cold, and every hair is standing on his neck, he whispers into his mouth pieces, "now."

He recalls the story of the elephant that Victor once told him on the rooftop, that night when he pretended he couldn't dance. _A man passes by a circus and is puzzled by a large elephant being tied by a thin rope and not running away. So he asks the circus master why does the elephant escape. The circus master responds, when the elephant was a baby, she was tied to the tiny rope, she pulled and struggled against it, but was unable to break free, so she stopped trying, because she believed she cannot escape the ropes._

He was just like that elephant...before Victor came into his life. And today he is breaking free and he is taking the others with him.

**"My name Katsuki Yuri,"** his voice is suddenly can be heard throughout the rooftops. Michele activated the switch that projects his voice. He knows he has a short amount of time, and that he needs to reach the rest of the organization, the rest of the soldiers fighting for the master who sees them as nothing but tools. **"I hold the raven ring."** He lifts his fist in front of him.

"Kill him," The master commands his five guards behind him, "Now!"

But the guards hesitate because they they see Yuri is the one with the ancient golden ring that the leader of the organization pass down from generation to generation that the members must unconditionally obey. The delicate raven outshines the stars in the sky above, intricate down to its last feather, with an onyx for the eye. One of the guards begins to fire, Guang Hong immediately leaps in front of Yuri and deflects the bullet with his sword. Down below, the sound of bullets fire like rain continues as the two forces collide.

Yuri knows he does not have long.

**"I was created by Project Genesis to be the perfect soldier, like most of you, to do the master's biddings, and to fulfil the patrons' every wish. The master is the one who released the virus killing the rest of the world, while the patrons of the organization wait in the city below. Once the world above dies they will remerge and forge a new one that brings back slavery, and auctioning youths to brothels during a masquerade. We are nothing but their tools, we are expendable, we are taught to believe that obeying them is our only purpose. But one day I realized that was wrong."**

Even though Yuri cannot see the master's face, he can imagine at this moment, the master's expression, his face must be twisted in fury. The sound of the bullets are slowing down with every word that Yuri speaks. He thinks of Victor, he thinks of his brother, and the rest of Yakov's army waiting in the darkness for him to finally appear. He cannot fail. He is the old world's last hope. Yuri continues, **"Have you ever dreamt to be ordinary? To never have to kill again, to be free to make your own choices,"** Yuri feels as if his heart is going to stop. **"then drop your weapons, and I will set you free. I implore you, as the fifty sixth leader, drop your weapons, and you walk free."** He can hardly breathe, time seems to slow down, and the silence is deafening to his ears.

"Kill him!" the master shouts again, gesturing to the guards behind him by tilting his chin. The sound of his wild fury reverberating through the empty city below. "Now!"

But they do not move. They take off their masks with their weapons on the ground and sink onto one knee before Yuri.

It's over.

Yuri still does not dare to breathe.

Realizing that the organization is no longer his, the master pulls out the small silver device from his pocket that can activate the explosives around Yurio's collar with enough power to pulverize a few blocks. "It's far from over, if I am heading to hell, all of you are coming with me!" He presses the button waiting for the fire originating from Yura's collar to swallow the entire building.

But instead, high in the sky a new light appears, illuminating the entire sky, bright like the morning star. A few seconds later the loud yet distant sound of the explosion follows, like rumbling thunder. Otabek's mechanical owl had already taken the capsule that was once inside Yura's collar high up into the sky.

A furious sound escapes from the master's mouth, he knows Yuri just beat him at his own game. He stumbles a few steps back towards the edge of the helicopter pad, the side without the railing.

Yuri pulls out his gun and points it straight at the master's heart, he hesitates for a moment because he remembers his wedding vows. He promised Victor that he would never kill again.

Suddenly Victor takes his gun from him, "Yuri, let me," _I refuse to let Yuri kill again,_ Victor silently promises. He remembers Yurio telling him about his brother's nightmares, and washing his hands till they are raw because he thinks the blood stains can never come off his hands. He remembers the tattoos on Yuri's back, the most private parts of him, representing every person he killed. _This is for you, Yuri, my love, if by doing this I am going to hell, then I'll go in your place. This is for my parents, for Yakov, for the rest of the world..._

Victor pulls the trigger. His aim impeccable.

Time seems to stop.

He does not aim to kill, but the bullet pierces through the master's right shoulder.

The mountain of a man stumbles a few steps backwards and falls off the edge.

Panting, Victor lowers his gun and his eyes meet Yuri's dark ones. _Is it really...over?_

People behind him start to stir as if time is starting again.

Suddenly the sound of pain escapes from Yurio's lips following the thud of his knees falling onto the ground. Yuri runs over to his brother, catching his fall on his knees. "Yurio!"

Yuri sees streaks of bright red blood leaking from Yurio's fingers at the place where he is clasping onto his neck. Yuri feels as if all of the air is being sucked out of his lungs. The chip.

He realizes during the master's fall in midair, he must have remotely activated the death function on the chip that he implanted inside his brother's neck the same way he did to Yakov's.

Yurio can no longer feels his right arm, blood continues to spurt from the back of his neck, he tries to maintain a neutral expression of his face to not let his pain show.

With desperation, Yuri applies pressure to the area of the neck where Yurio is bleeding from, "no...", but the bleeding will not stop, "Phichit!" Yuri glances around desperately as his friend sprints towards them.

Victor regrets not aiming for the master in between his eyes, his fist grasps onto the fabric of his grey vest near his heart.

Otabek pushes through the gathering crowd of soldiers and rushes by his friend's side. He sinks to his knees next to Yuri.

"Phichit! Can you fix this?" Yuri's voice is desperate.

With heaviness, and tears in his dark eyes, Phichit shakes his head. He knows the reason the master sent him to medical school to become a neurosurgeon is to take over the procedure of implanting chips for the future. He knows the death function, once activated there is no turning back.

They can almost hear Yuri's heart breaking, but Yurio's expression looks peaceful, as his breathes becomes more raspy.

"Yuri," Yura's forest green eyes meets his brother's gaze, he smiles weakly, as if already making peace with the end, "take me...to the top...I want to watch the sunrise." his right arm can no longer move. Yuri nods, there is a gaping hole enlarging in his heart that he is not ever getting back. He wants to cry but he doesn't know how, a strange spluttering sound escapes his throat.

Yuri picks him up, he is surprisingly heavy despite his height. Otabek cannot speak, his tears won't stop pouring from his dark eyes.

More light is appearing from the horizon.

"Wait...Phichit," Yurio calls out, "I want you to promise me something..."

"Anything," Phichit answers without hesitation.

"Promise that you'll...throw these two a proper wedding..." Yurio's face is peaceful, he is having increasing difficulty letting words out. His eyes meets Victor's.

"I promise," Phichit nods, he is no longer able to hold his tears back.

"And Victor," Yurio turns his head a little, still wincing in the pain of the chip eating through his neck and through his spine, "...take care of Yuri...if you pick on him, I won't forgive you...ever" his chest rises and falls while he struggles for air.

Victor can no longer speak, he grips Yurio's hand tightly and nods his head.

Yuri carries him, with Otabek by his side to the highest place on the roof, the horizon is now tinged with pink. "Yuri, I don't want a funeral, but I want a celebration of my life..." His voice is almost gone, "meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me.

A hot drop of Otabek's tear falls onto Yura's cheek.

"And you, my friend," Yura leans against Yuri's chest, he feels the gentle caress and warmth of the first ray of the morning sun, he reaches up to touch Beka's face because his vision is leaving him, "I am glad...that on my last day on earth, I spent it with you."

His hand falls.

His face peaceful.

In the arms of two people who love him the most in the world, Yurio closes his eyes.


	13. Guardian of Hope

Yuri falls onto his knees, his brother's golden mane spilling over his lap, he shakes Yura's shoulder as he watches his breathing slow down. Yuri doesn't know how to cry, the master taught him that tears and love are for the weak. For the first time in fourteen years warm crystalline drops pour from his eyes, down the side of his cheeks and onto Yura's forehead and making his golden eyelashes damp.

Next to him, Otabek is the same, his one hand clasps onto Yura's right hand, that he could no longer move, pressing it against his heart as the sun rises even higher into the sky shedding its starry cloak of the night.

Victor kneels next to Yuri, unable to utter a single word. They have forgotten about the rest of the world, the rebellion, the war that they just won. _Why didn't I shoot the master in between the eyes...I shot him in the shoulder instead, in Yuri's place, because he promised not to kill ever again._ Victor's lips are trembling... _Yuri I am so sorry._

Yuri silently promised himself he would not lose neither Victor nor his brother, but in the end his brother is gone, leaving a black hole inside his heart, as if a part of himself died that he is never getting back. Yurio was the reason his own nightmares after killing countless people stopped, and his reason he was able to hold back from washing his hands over and over thinking the bloodstains would never go away. Not that his brother is gone.

The rest of the world does not matter anymore.

"Wait!" Suddenly Phichit's voice reverberates through the concrete forest below them. He never sprinted faster in his life, with Ms. Lilia at his heel, the clicking of her shoes the only sound heard miles around.

"Yuri!" Phichit's hand covers his chest gasping for air, "there...might...be a way."

Yuri's vision blurs once again with his brother in his arms, he could not speak, he could not move, his heart in a thousand pieces. He is desperate to cling onto even a tiny ray of hope.

"The organization forced Yakov to design a tank, for the storage of the perfect soldiers that they would create, to keep them dormant until they are ready," Lilia strokes the side of Yura's face, even though their meeting was brief in the underground city below, she cannot help but care deeply for him. She was touched by the way he stood tall, his eyes filled with defiance and dignity as if mocking the ways of the world below as they tried to put a price on his life in the masquerade.

"Anything..." Yuri wipes his eyes.

"I know I can't fix his spine the way it is now, but in five years, things may change..." Phichit kneels next to Ms. Lilia, his frown deepen as he places his two fingers on the side of Yura's neck over his pulse. "There is no guarantee, and I don't think he'll ever be able to use his right arm again, but my only condition is that I need to know this is the choice your brother would make." Phichit, being in the final year of training before becoming a full fledged neurosurgeon, is aware, better than anyone, sometimes letting go is better than holding on. He has seen patients who cannot move or speak, everything they do depends on others, and the only part of them that can move is their eyes. He has seen people being kept on machines for days, having tubes in every orifice of their body. He has seen that too many times, people alive but not really living, people trapped in ghostly shells of their former selves. He needs to know.

Yura's breathing is slowing down, Yuri hesitates.

Suddenly Otabek grabs onto Yura's shoulders and shakes him, his voice cracking in desperation, "Yurachka," he uses his full name, the one that he used to call him when they first met as kids locked in a shipping container to be trafficked to South America, "remember that time I tried to end my own life with the rusty razor blade and you snatched it away from me? You gave me a reason to live, you saved me...so please..."

He could not finish, he prays inside, p _lease tell me that you want to live...this time...let me give you a reason to live..._

Suddenly Yuri gasps as a drop of tear rolls from the corner of his brother's eye. Yura starts to breathe again, weakly and shallowly, he just made peace with his own mortality, he was ready to let go, he said his final goodbyes,but for some reason, Beka's voice touches a deep part of him that he previously did not even dare to think about. He imagines for a second traveling the world with Beka, laughing while sitting on the back of his motorbike, and leaning back with his chin high in the air feeling the wind in his hair. He imagines Yuri and Victor becoming parents. He imagines the wedding that Phichit promised him to plan for his brother. "Beka...it's not my time yet," he desperately clings onto the sleeve of his friend's leather jacket, "I want to live." His green eyes are once again filled with fire, with determination and defiance, his hair golden like rays of hope, like the morning star defying the sun.

* * *

6 months flies by since that day on the rooftop...the world slowly emerges like the ice thawing in the spring. After the final battle, the world slowly and surely begins its process to heal.

There's hardly anyone who did not cry at Yuri and Victor's wedding. As promised, Phichit has been busy planning it in between surgery days. He is now a full fledged neurosurgeon. His four years of medical school and seven years of residency (modern version of slavery as JJ puts it) have finally come to an end. He did, let his formal rival JJ take him out for a dinner date as promised.

The party is small, they decided to have their ceremony at dawn. As not only a celebration of their love, but also as a celebration of Yura's life, under the light of the morning star shining brightly even at the end of the night.

Though Ms. Lilia promised to buy Yura time while Phichit works his magic, she still did asked Yuri to say goodbye in case he never opens his eyes again. Yura asked not to have a funeral, where he will be mourned but a celebration of his life.

JJ helps Phichit carry the white arch the day before onto the top of the mountain above the clouds. Everyone is moving slightly slower because they are at a higher elevation. Intertwining on the arch are translucent white veil and blue and white roses.

The isle is narrow, lit by light blue candles on either side. Yuri waits under the arch in a black tuxedo the same colour as night, his vest underneath midnight blue, matching his bow tie. He shuffles his feet because he is a little nervous. There are not many things that make the former formidable assassin nervous. He never dared to dream of this moment before. He did not think he would even live past the age of 30. He remembers that night when they made their vows under the light shining through the roof of a broken church. Their vows involves mending each other's broken pieces. Yuri promised Victor he would never kill again and to undo all of his lies, while Victor promised that he would always believe Yuri. He can never forget that night where they gave themselves to each other for the first time, and when he told Victor the stories behind his tattoos on his back that he never told anyone. Love is a luxury his former self did not dare dream of. He loved Yurio, as family, Phichit as a comarade and friend, but Victor, he loves more than life itself.

With a single clap, Phichit signals for the music to play. There is a string quartet next to them. Yuri didn't know Sara can play the viola like that, next to his brother closes his eyes while he glides the bow over the string of the cello. The audience stands up on either side of the isle. Minami wipes his eyes, he cannot help his tears while witnessing his hero Yuri finding his happiness.

Yuri promised Victor not to peek and to wait for him patiently down the isle. The curiosity is killing him a little. Yuri's hand feels clammy, he can hear his own heart beats in his ears. Yuri still feels the gaping hole that his brother left in his heart. He went to see him the night before sleeping upright inside the tank Yakov built, his expression peaceful, his hair suspended in the water surrounding him. Yuri craves for his brother's presence. Every time he sees Howl, his brother's snarly cat, he thinks of him. He remembers the time in the rain he sees the back of a teenage boy with golden hair past his chin, and wanting to run towards him thinking that's his brother.

Everywhere he looks, pieces of his brother's life are turning up in every corner. Even now, surrounded by the members of the former organization closest to him, who stood by his side during the final battle, he thinks of Yurio. His brother fought hard to be able to join their ranks, despite Yuri protesting because he didn't want him to become a cold blooded killer.

Suddenly gasping can be heard, and some in the audience begin sobbing silently. As the melody of Cannon continues Yuri cannot help himself but to slowly turn. His dark eyes widen.

He has never seen someone so beautiful.

Yuri inhales sharply.

Ms. Lilia walks Victor down the isle arm in arm in Yakov's place. He was the closest thing to a father Victor ever had. Victor is wearing a white tuxedo, on top of his head a ring of blue roses, and underneath covering his face is a translucent white veil that trails 20 feet behind him. Two of Otabek's robot humming birds keep the tail of the veil in the midair behind Victor in their beaks, their propeller like wings beat with silently in sync.

Lilia stands tall and elegant in a navy blue dress. A few strands of loose curls falling from her bun framing her heart shaped face. She looks...timeless. She wore the same veil at her wedding 25 years ago, when she married Yakov. They knew they were meant for each other right away. Three months after they met they were married. The divorce was Yakov's last way of protecting her, despite her protest. Yakov knew the time was coming close when the faction within the organization that desires peace will have to stand up and fight.

They never stopped loving each other.

Victor blushes a little, as slowly his gaze travels up, meeting Yuri's dark eyes. His face lights up as he watches Yuri's expressions as he slowly walks closer. The veil before him softly caressing against his skin, he can make out the tiny intricate details of the embroidery along the its edges.

The mechanical hummingbirds let go of the bottom of the veil letting the wind gently lift it into the sky. Victor looks ethereal, like a fallen angel from the sky.

Phichit tries to keep his tears from spilling from his eyes as he watches them exchange their vows, "you may...kiss..." He could not continue.

With the morning star watching over them, Yuri lifts the veil. His suit black as night, Victor's like day, they kiss softly at the moment where night meets the day. Wind lifts the veil over Yuri's head enveloping both of them as the sun rises on their faces, like that day when Yurio said goodbye. "I wish he's here," Yuri whispers.

"He is here," Victor places Yuri's hand over his heart, "pieces of him are here within all of us."

* * *

Their reception has everything that Yurio loved, there are cupcakes with tiger stripes on them and pirozhkis. Instead of mourning, as promised, they celebrated his life instead.

They danced to Yurio's favorite music, to some it sounds strange, but they did anyways.

* * *

They are both exhausted after the long day starting at dawn, Yuri sits in the passenger seat with a warm pizza on his lap.

They drive back to the little wooden cabin in the mountains, the same place where Yuri took Victor to in order to comfort him when Yakov passed away. It's the first place where they fell asleep next to each other. The same place where Yuri and his brother spend a few days every summer. Behind the cabin is a patch of mint filled with life, that returns year after year. Yuri and his brother used to make tea with it. It's also the place Yuri sat on the bathroom floor completely broken after Victor's bullet pierced through his side, and his brother made pancakes for him the next day while picking off the burnt pieces.

The smell of the pizza is intoxicating. Yuri's stomach rumbles. He will never forget this day, and the way Victor looked at him. The rest of the day passed like a dream. They did not have a chance to eat.

They open the door of the wooden cabin. It appears small from the outside but that is deceptive. The ceiling is high, the smell of oak calming, Yuri feels right at home. He loosens his collar and frees his electric blue bow tie, and hangs his black tuxedo on the back of a wooden chair while Victor does the same. Yuri unbuttons his top few buttons for him.

Yuri pulls out two cold beers from the fridge and tosses one to Victor. He rarely ever drinks, memories of Yurio insisting on taking a sip of his beer each time he opens one flood back to his mind.

They sit next to each other on the floor with their backs against the couch eating pizza like...normal people.

Yuri steals a glance at Victor, exhausted, his silvery hair mildly ruffled, still in his white tuxedo, Yuri cannot help but grin.

"What's so funny," Victor reaches for a second slice. He swallows while watching a string of cheese disconnect.

Yuri blushed a little, "you are so damn beautiful, that's all."

Victor laughs back with him, "you don't need to eat so fast you know."

Yuri is already on his third slice. He scratches his head, when it comes to food, he has to watch his pace otherwise he is used to Yurio eating it all. "My brother eats so fast that sometimes I wonder if I will go hungry if I don't."

Victor wraps his free arm around him, "someday, let's have pizza...all three of us."

Yuri nods firmly and leans his head against Victor's shoulder. _Someday._

* * *

The first year since Yura slept, Otabek moved his workshop bench in the same room as the tank where his friend is. Otabek continues to build his robots, while listening to the radio, _"the trials continue for the leaders of the underground city for crimes against humanity..."_ he changes the channel, _"Dr. Nikiforov created the vaccine in a matter of days, while typically it takes years..."_ he could use some music, he decides. He wonders what kind of music Yura would like. Classical...? Heavy metal? Rock? He changes the music with a small silver remote, a song entitled "Welcome to the madness" begins to play, its bass guitar rumble and sharp notes reminds him of Yura. _Spunky. I think he'll like this one..._

Howl, Yura's feisty cat that Beka promised to take care of (at the price of almost losing his eyeballs) sleeps next to the large cylindrical tank where Yura is inside with cords connected through his back. Howl snarls when Otabek comes too close, as if guarding his friend. Beka shrugs and ignores him, thinking to himself, _that cat is more faithful than any dog I have ever seen._

* * *

The second year since Yura slept, Otabek's workbench is filled with mechanical parts, in the center the piece he is assembling begins to resemble a hand. Howl rubs against his leg then hisses reminding him it is lunch time. _I guess it's time to feed you._ Otabek talks to Yura every day the first thing in the morning. Sometimes he reads the news to him, other times books so his friend would not be lonely.

Yuri and Victor comes to visit Yura often. Without words, Otabek would leave Yuri to speak with his little brother. Sometimes Yuri would leave with red rimmed eyes and Victor would put an protective arm around him and kiss him softly. Otabek looks away with heat rising from his face. Otabek notices the way Yuri's expression softens over the past year, he is no longer the cold hearted assassin. There is a new kindness radiating from him.

* * *

The third year. The mechanical arm is complete and it waits in a glass case. Yura sleeps peacefully. The air in Otabek's workshop becomes busier, as he tests his automatous robots, flying in the air tethered to a piece of rope trying to tie a knot. Howl no longer hiss at him, he grudgingly accepted Otabek's silent company, sometimes he even seeks his attention by rubbing against his legs reluctantly.

One day Victor and Yuri comes with a surprise. "Yurio, there is someone we would like you to meet." They unwrapped the bundle they are carrying, revealing a baby with dark hair and piercing green eyes.

"Congratulations," Otabek's usual stoic expression breaks into a smile, as the baby curls his tiny fingers around his thumb and would not let go. Otabek is amazed by the small life clinging onto him tightly. His eyes bright, and those fingernails...they are so tiny...

"Do you want to hold him?" Victor strokes the baby's cheek.

Otabek looks back at him awkwardly, he never held a baby before. Victor read his mind and lets out a soft laugh, "it's like this." He shows him.

Otabek nods and cradles the tiny life in his arms. Those forest green eyes follow him and he breaks into a smile. Yura...he longed for his friend's green eyes to open. "What's his name?"

"Jakob," Yuri scoops the bundle gingerly from Otabek.

_Oh._ A variation of the name Yakov. _Otabek notes silently._

* * *

The fourth year since Yura slept, Otabek scratches Howl's head as he purrs and curls up in his lap. The white cat with grey ears and blue eyes reluctantly accepted his presence. Victor lets his hair grow long again.

* * *

The fifth year, Otabek suddenly receives a phone call on a beautiful morning in April when the sky is cloudless and azure, the peach blossoms begin to bloom.

"We are ready," Phichit says.

Otabek's heart leaps out of his chest, before he knew it tears are pouring out of his eyes. He presses his forehead against the glass of where his friend slept for the past 5 years. He looks taller than before, his blonde hair now past his waist. Otabek thinks his friend might now be taller than himself.

"Yura," he begins, "tomorrow is your big day," he wonders if he can hear him, his heart races. He know already for a long time the way he feels runs deeper than friendship alone. He knows he loves Yura the same way Victor loves Yuri, but he decided that's a secret that he will bury. His time continued, along with the rest of the world, but Yura's time stopped since that day on the rooftop when he was sixteen, even though his body changed, for his mind to find itself will take time to find equilibrium with his time. Otabek gazes onto the ground, "no matter what happens tomorrow, I want you to know..." heat is rising from his face, "that I...love you, I have always loved you. I am never going to tell you that...because your friendship alone for me is more than enough, so please..." he wipes his eyes, "come back to me." His vision blurs.

* * *

The surgery lasted fourteen hours, Phichit and JJ works together in perfect harmony side by side taking turns with breaks. To Yuri and Otabek, it feels like eternity. The empty case containing the mechanical arm Otabek made for Yura sits next to them.

Victor remembers the last time he waited outside of the operating room was now what feels like years ago, after Yuri blocked a bullet in front of him with his own body.

They stand up and rush towards Phichit as soon as the automatic glass door swing open. Phichit looks exhausted, he takes off his black surgeon's cap with the raging hamster at the front. Some things never change. He breaks into a tired smile.

Yuri's heart almost stops.

"It's done, his vitals are stable, we got him off the ventilator and he is now breathing on his own, we did everything from our end," Phichit squeezes Yuri's shoulder with his hand, "the rest is up to him."

Suddenly Yuri pulls his friend forward into a tight embrace, no words can express his gratitude.

* * *

The next day, Yurio opens his eyes.

* * *

So...

What do you think?

Writing this bittersweet chapter made me ache and smile a lot at same time, if that makes sense.

Final chapter: 14: Epilogue

I will share with you the original ending and the reason I changed it.

xoxo

Antares

P.S. hope you enjoyed the pizza scene, it's my realistically twist of what couples actually do at the end of their wedding day :)


	14. Epilogue

Yura lies in a hospital bed with his back propped up with a pillow. Otabek is fast asleep, his head resting next to his friend's left hand. Yura's right arm, permanently damaged by the impact of chip the master implanted into his neck, has been replaced by the mechanical arm Otabek designed and made for him. It took Otabek over a year. He is finally living his dream of being an engineer.

Next to them on the counter is a vase filled with orange colored tiger lilies. Victor sits by the window, his long silvery hair pulled in a loose ponytail. He scrolls through the news on his phone as distraction. Yuri lies on his lap fast asleep. Victor tugs the blanket a little to make sure Yuri isn't cold. Ms. Lilia graciously offered to take care of their son Jakob for the evening so they can be here.

Otabek rubs his eyes wondering how long he has been asleep for, he looks down at his watch, it says 2:55 am. He watches Yura's chest rise and fall. His face looks different, because he has been with Yura every day he does not know when those subtle changes happened. Yura looks older, the angle of his jaw more defined. He lies in a pool of his golden mane now down to the small of his back. Otabek cannot help himself but to hold onto his friend's left hand. He silently prays for Yura to wake up and to remember who he was. He silently promises even if Yura doesn't remember, or isn't the same, he would take care of him for the rest of his life.

Suddenly Yura coughs and the grip on Otabek's hand tightens.

The window is open, fresh warm April air with a hint of smell of earth after the rain fills the room.

For the first time in five years, Yurio opens his eyes. Forgetting what the sound of his own voice is, he whispers, "Beka...?"

Otabek's vision blurs, a twisting feeling rises from his stomach towards his chest. After sleeping for five years inside Yakov's tank, the first words from his friend's lips is his name. Hot drops of his tears fall onto the Yura's hand.

"Beka," Yura comforts him, his forest green eyes glistening too, slowly he lifts his mechanical arm, not used to its weight. With trembling fingers he reaches for Beka's face, "don't cry."

Even more tears spill from Otabek's eyes with those words, for five years he waited for this single moment. "Ok Yura, if you say so." He cannot stop himself, he covers his face with his hands.

Yura glances around the room, his face light up when he sees Yuri asleep on Victor's lap, and Victor nodding off on the couch, his silvery hair spilling over Yuri's face.

Yura takes a deep breath, the sound of his own voice almost foreign, "Yuri!" He calls out.

Yuri stirrs in his sleep, breathing Victor's familiar scent, slowly he opens his eyes, then he leaps up into the air. "Yurio!" With his mouth wide open next to Yurio's hospital bed, he shakes his brother's shoulders to make sure this is real. Yuri pinches himself to confirm that he is not dreaming.

"C'mon, not you too, since when did you -" Yurio smiles as he sees Yuri's eyes glistening. He thought his brother doesn't know how to cry. He squeezes Yuri's hand with his mechanical arm on the right, its heaviness will take some time for him to get used to.

Then Yuri pulls him forwards into a tight embrace, like that day when they first met under the afternoon sun of Brazil. Like that day when Yuri promised he will never again leave him behind.

Victor's blue-green eyes light up as he covers his mouth with one hand. He dials Phichit's phone number.

A minute later, Phichit turns on the lights in Yurio's hospital room. He is in the same sterile green scrubs he always wears, with a few lines on his face imprinted from his pillow. He presses his lips together for a tight smile. He take a deep breath. _Please come back the same way you went to sleep,_ he prays. He has seen too much, people becoming dependent on machines or on others just to live another day. The tank was a gamble, the surgery was too, despite JJ's firm hand that patted him on the back afterwards telling him his job was flawless.

Yuri move out of Phichit's way.

"Did you plan my brother's wedding?" Yurio crosses his arms across his chest.

Phichit nods at same time lets out a huge sigh of relief, _he is making sense, that's a good sign._ He pulls out a penlight from the pocket of his scrubs.

"Yurio, let Phichit examine you," Yuri leans against the dresser with tiger lilies blooming on top.

"Fine," Yurio didn't protest, "I am fine."

Phichit shines a light into both of his eyes to make sure his pupils are reacting, asked him to raise his eyebrows then puff out his cheeks, and follow his fingers with his eyes. After a series of neurological tests Phichit looks satisfied. "Alright, a few silly questions, say your full name."

"Yuri Plisetski."

"Do you know where you are?" Phichit has a feeling he is just fine.

"In a fancy ass hospital talking to my loaded neurosurgeon," Yurio rolls his eyes.

Phichit chuckles, doctors are far from "loaded", especially in the beginning of their careers. It's been twelve years since he first sold his soul to medical school. This is the first year of him finishing residency and becoming a real surgeon on his own. Life feels real again, he knows what normal people do on weekends, and what it's like to sleep seven hours per night. "Do you know the date today?"

"That's not a fair question-" Yurio's eye wander toward Victor with his silvery hair now past the small of his back tied back. He wonders, how long has he been asleep for.

Phichit knows Yurio is right, "today is April 22nd, 2017."

 _Five years,_ Yurio looks down at his hands, his fingers are longer than he is used to, "I am...twenty one." He runs his fingers through his hair that is now past his waist.

* * *

"No way, I am an...uncle?" Yurio takes one sip of ginger ale from a small can next to his hospital bed, his forest green eyes widen with delight. "This makes me sound so damn old...like Victor."

Yuri grins as he picks up a pair of scissors, "His name is Jakob."

"You named him after Yakov didn't you!" Yurio realizes that the name of his brother's son is a variation of Yakov's name.

"We did," Yuri begins to snip off the long blonde locks of Yurio's hair, like when they first met when Yurio was eight. "You remember the first time I did this? How long it took to untangle everything. You were a dirty snot nosed little brat..."

Yurio remembers, after Yuri rescued him from the human traffickers, he remembers how gentle his brother's hands were despite being a professional killer. He nods. "I hope you are not getting rusty after all these years."

"I am capable of a lot of things, Yurio, give your _old_ brother a little more credit" Yuri smirks, as long locks fall onto the ground next to them. A wave of breeze comes into through the windows, sending a few blonde locks flying. "Close your eyes, I am cutting the front now."

Yurio feels a few soft strands fall from his face, and the warmth of Yuri's hand.

"What happened to Howl?" Yurio asks about the cat that he first picked up from the streets when the world is falling apart.

Yuri laughs, "You have a really great friend. I offered to keep that little monster despite the constant hissing, biting, and going after my eyeballs, but Otabek insisted he'll look after him. Howl was living in the same room as the tank where you slept all along."

Yurio gulps, he feels heat rushing to his face. _Beka..._

"The last time I heard, the little monster actually lets Otabek pet him now," Yuri makes the final touches. "All done."

Yuri holds onto his brother's arm gently to make sure he does not fall, years of sleeping inside of the tank made his muscles weaker. He is only beginning to learn how to walk and how to breathe again.

Yurio glances at his reflection in the mirror and smiles at his sworn brother from the mirror. His golden hair is shorter than when it used to be when he was fifteen, his bangs parted to one side just past his green eyes. His face looks older, he has a hard time recognizing himself. He is now taller than Yuri, and Otabek as well.

They talked until the end of day to catch up on everything that happened in the past five years.

His rehab took four long months. Ms. Lilia scolds him often for overexerting himself. Otabek promises him to take him to see the world at the end of it, that kept him going. Yuri insists for him to go to college afterwards. Yurio rolled his eyes to that though, college would be a breeze for him.

Otabek keeps his promise, when Yurio is being discharged from rehab, he says, "pack your things, we are in leaving in six hours."

Yura's bright eyes lights up.

* * *

Yura holds onto the waist of Otabek's faux leather jacket on the back of his motorcycle, he lifts his chin into the air feeling the gentle ocean wind against his face. They drive up on a single lane road spiralling towards the mountain top. Light begins to appear on the eastern horizon. Though the island is tropical the temperature on the mountain top drops. The morning star shines brightly above them, watching over them.

They are going to the same mountaintop where Victor and Yuri said their wedding vows at dawn.

Otabek, a man of few words, hums a little while driving.

Finally they reach the mountaintop. There are many others tourist and locals a like waiting for the sun to rise. They are at an elevation where they are above the clouds. Yura zips up his black hoodie and unbuckles his helmet.

They stand next to each other in silence as the horizon gradually becomes painted in the shades of orange and gold. The locals break into song in their native tongue welcoming the sunrise. Their powerful voices echo over the shorter mountains below.

Yura and Beka watch sun rise over the clouds in silence, side by side. This moment sacred and surreal. _Beka, thank you for not giving up on me..._ Yura whispers in his mind.

They leave the mountaintop and make their descend, along the way Yura insists on his friend letting him try riding the motorcycle. Beka tells him he can once they are on flatter grounds.

They drive along the winding single lane highway with rain forest on either side, stopping occasionally to gaze up on the secret waterfall.

They stop to swim on the beaches with soft white sand.

One morning while on the island Beka notices his friend acting strange.

"Why are you staring at me, do I have something on my face," Otabek wrinkles his forehead and raises one eyebrow.

"Yes, there's something...on your eyelash on the left," Yura replies halfheartedly.

Otabek rubs his left eye, "is it gone?"

"I'll get it," Yura shakes his head.

"Let me try again - " Otabek is about to reach up for his eye again.

"Beka, just shut up and close your eyes," Yura commands. Yuri Plisetski is confident, but what he is about to do is his first time. His heart is racing so fast he can hear his own blood pulsating inside his ears. He takes a deep breath, leans forward and presses his lips firmly against his friend's.

Suddenly Otabek opens his eyes in shock. He has never seen Yura's face this close before. The bridge of his nose high, his green eyes closed, his eyelashes golden and surprisingly long. Yura rests one arm against his shoulder, and his knee on his lap, his lips soft and they have the lingering taste of the coffee they just had.

Otabek closes his eyes. The feeling he has for Yura that he decided to bury pour out of him, like lava flowing from an erupting volcano. He convinced himself having Yura's friendship is more than enough. He didn't know Yura felt the same way all along. Part of him protests, Yura has been sleeping for five years, he was sixteen when he was placed inside the tank. Even though his body changes, time did stop for him for five whole years. The rational side of Beka wanted to give him time, to grow, to heal, to catch up to the present. The other part of Otabek is on fire. He cannot take his eyes off the gorgeous young man before him with hair the same colour as the morning star, and green eyes filled with life. He wants him. He suppresses his fantasies of things he wants to do with him. He wants him bad.

Finally, Otabek lightly returns his kiss once, and wraps his strong arms around Yura and pulls him close.

"Beka," Yura gazes towards the ground blushing, "you are so thickheaded, I swear..." he mumbles.

"Why is that?" Otabek grins. One of his arms is still around Yura's waist.

"You couldn't tell how I felt about you all this time...until I had to do this, until I have to spell it out for you," exasperated, Yura points one finger towards his friend, "I like you Otabek, actually to be more brutally honest I fucking love you."

Otabek inhales sharply, his heart is beating so fast that he can hardly breathe. He does not say anything, after all he is a man of few words.

"I heard everything, Beka," Yura leans forwards and wraps his arms around his friend and presses his face against Beka's chest.

Now it is Otabek's turn to blush. He spoke to Yura every day when he was asleep. Without thinking, he told Yura everything on his mind for the past five years.

"You played music to me, read books, the news...and you said you loved me." Yura can hear Beka's racing heart about to leap out of his chest.

"I-"

"Shh-" Yura presses one finger against his lip, "you said it already and you can't take it back. Let me make things crystal clear."

Otabek feels completely helpless against those beautiful green eyes.

"I want you, Beka," Yura furls his eyebrows, "the same way Victor wants my brother...I want to do those things with you."

Otabek wants to scoop him up at this moment and carry him onto the bed and pin him down, but he decides to control himself. Yura still needs time to heal, though his body have grown, when he fell asleep he was sixteen and he woke up only six months ago. He runs one hand and ruffles Yura's hair. "I can't resist you Yura, I can never say no to you but I do have one condition."

"What is it?" Yura pouts, a few golden strands fall over his eager eyes.

"We go slow."

Yura sticks out his tongue, "fine." _This is why you'll never get laid in real life, which is good for me, I suppose..._ Yura thinks to himself grinning.

 _The pants stay on._ Otabek repeats to himself firmly. He shakes his head at the though and begin to smile. His grin mirrors Yura's and they both begin to laugh until their stomach hurts.

Of all moments to pick from to finally let his friend know about his true feelings, Yura picks the most ordinary moment on the most ordinary morning. It wasn't on the peak of the mountain over the clouds at sunrise. It wasn't by the endless ocean or by the waterfall in the rainforest. It was in the morning after they sat on the balcony sipping coffee.

And to them, these ordinary moments are the most precious things in the world.

* * *

It's the anniversary of Yakov's death, on a beautiful day in the fall. Yuri walks ahead with their son Jakob sitting on his neck. Jakob ruffles Yuri's hair with his hands making it messy. "Katsudon!" He laughs as he pulls on Yuri's ear playfully.

"No, Jakob, it's papa!" Yuri protests.

"Katsudon! Katsudon!" The little boy is not listening. Recently Yuri made his signature katsudon, where he stole the recipe from a famous chef when he was on a mission for the organization years ago. That somehow leads to their son calling him katsudon...

Victor laughs from behind them. There is a thin layer of orange and red leaves covering the cobblestone path in the graveyard. The entire mountain behind is painted a multitude of autumn colours. Ms. Lilia walks next to Victor in a red wool coat, in her arms a bouquet of white roses.

"Victor," she begins, "I was going through his things, photos...I meant to give you this." She takes out a photograph from her pocket.

Victor's smile widens with delight, on it two people in their twenties laughing with each other, obviously in love. The woman has pale golden hair and eyes like the colour of the ocean.

This is the second picture that Victor has of his parents. His parents' ring now rests on Yuri's finger.

"All the young men in the university are after your mother," Lilia chuckles, "but she only had eyes for your father."

Victor imagines his parents as graduate students under Yakov's wings, too bright for their own good. He imagines young Yakov with a full head of hair. _Mom, dad, I wanted you to know that I am happy..._

"Your father was soft spoken and kind, your mother, she was vibrant and full of life." Lilia slows her pace as she stands before Yakov's white tombstone. "And you, Vitya, your aura is just like your father," she faces him and smiles, "but you have your mother's eyes."

"I wish I had known them, I wish...I could introduce Yuri, and Jakob too." A wave of autumn wind picks up a swirl of leaves in a spiral into the air.

Lilia nods, "your parents would be proud, Yakov too." She placed the bundle of roses by the tombstone.

Victor nods as he lifts his head towards the sky and closes his eyes feeling the soft autumn breeze against his face. _Mom, dad, Yakov, wherever you are, I want you to know that I am happy... and thank you for watching over us._

After the final battle Victor and Chris found the cure to the virus causing the world to almost perish using the forbidden Project Delta developed by Victor and Yakov.

On Yuri's and Victor's wedding day on top of the cliff, Victor tossed the chips containing Project Genesis and Project Delta into the ravine below. At same time, Yuri parted with the raven ring that carries the ultimate power of the organization. Yuri offered all members of the organization a chance at freedom. Many complied and parted their lives from the organization forever. Phichit was busy removing implanted chips from their necks.

There are those who wanted to stay, those who stood by Yuri on the day of the final battle.

The leaders of the underground City of the Eternal who initiated the idea of creating a new world after destroying the old one were tried and punished for crimes against humanity.

But not all from that city carried that view. Under a Yuri and Minami's wings, the children who were engineered to be 'perfect' by Project Genesis begin to adapt to the world.

The organization changed forever.

With technology beyond this time, they became guardians of this new, imperfect, but beautiful world from the shadows.

* * *

"Victor," Yuri's wraps an arm around him, and rests his head against his bare chest listening to his even heartbeats, "do you remember how we met?"

Victor opens his blue-green eyes, still groggy from sleep, he ruffles Yuri's hair affectionately. "How could I forget," he kisses the top of Yuri's head, inhaling his familiar scent, "by the way, happy thirtieth birthday Yuri."

Rays of morning sun shine through the blinds, outside their window is the cloudless cerulean sky. Yuri cannot believe till this day that he could wake up every day like this. On some mornings he would pinch himself, to confirm that this is real. Victor would laugh at him and tell him, _yes, love, this is real._

Once upon a time Yuri did not dare to dream.

He did not know how to cry.

He thought love was for the weak.

He did not believe that he would live past the age of thirty.

And he was wrong.

* * *

To my readers:

It feels strange finishing this story, and cathartic in a way. I promised to finish a story that I started, and here I am!

As I mentioned before, the ending was changed. Here is the original ending: Yurio dies from the chip implanted in his neck being activated, before he dies he whispers in Victor's ear, "I want pieces of me to live on, so my brother would not be lonely, so part of me can stay by his side...always..." implying that he wanted Victor to use the forbidden Project Genesis one last time using his genes. The story ends with Yuri and Victor watching their 4 year old son who looks exactly like Yurio skate on ice on Yuri's 30th birthday.

In the end I couldn't do that to Yurio...so I betrayed the title of this story.

For those of you who stayed with me till the end...thank you.

xoxo

Antares

P.S. I am looking for a beta reader for my next stories. If you like my imagination and are good at looking at writing critically, please PM me.

* * *

The next story:

**Demon Song [M]**

Victor thought he saved a dark haired boy from the villagers trying to burn him screaming, "demon child!"

Unbeknownst to him, Yuri didn't need saving.


End file.
